Charmed Heritage: 115 My Curse on You: Part One
by StoryGirl83
Summary: Wyatt is cursed and Chris has lost his powers. And that's just how their day begins. Chris must work with someone he's not sure he trusts to find the cure for his brother while Wyatt must keep himself and those around him from death at their own hands.
1. The Strange Gem

My Curse on You ~ Part One

Chapter One – The Strange Gem

Fri, Apr 23, 2027

It was early morning at the San Francisco Museum of Natural History. Wyatt Halliwell had agreed to come in early to help his friend, Nathan Hensley, get a new display ready. Wyatt was unpacking items when he heard his friend muttering. "Did you say something?"

"Can you believe this thing?" Nathan repeated.

"What's the problem this time?" Wyatt said walking over to him.

Nathan handed Wyatt a sheet of paper.

Wyatt scanned and looked up confused. "I'm still not seeing the problem.."

Nathan took back the paper and gave him a look. "According to this paper in one of these boxes is a crystal that was blessed by the goddess Aphrodite. The person who wrote this writes as if they believe it. I'd get it if they said in ancient times people believed that or something like that, but to indicate that they think people still do, today? It's ridiculous."

Wyatt shook his head smiling.

Nathan glanced at the paper and walked over to the boxes. He looked at the labels until her found the one he wanted. He picked up the small box and brought it over to Wyatt. "Inside this box is what is labeled as The Aphrodite Crystal. Want to take a look?"

"We're working, Nathan," Wyatt warned.

"And this is not worked how?" Nathan returned.

"I don't know, Nathan," Wyatt replied, hesitantly. "It's just there has to be a reason for the belief that the crystal is magical."

"Yeah," Nathan agreed, "crazy superstitious people. You don't seriously believe in that stuff, do you?"

_More than you know_, Wyatt thought, but aloud he said in a hesitant voice, "Let's just say I know some things aren't explainable by science."

Nathan rolled his eyes and put the box down on a pile of boxes. He opened it up and Wyatt frowned. There was a glow emitting from the box. Nathan reached his hand over the box. He stopped and his hand hovered over the box.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea," Wyatt cautioned. "I don't like that glow."

"It's probably just some chemical reaction to something," Nathan suggested. "You know like lights at the bottom of the ocean, nothing to worry about." He reached his hand in and pulled out the crystal.

A green glow passed down Nathan's body, starting at the top of his head. Nathan shivered and dropped the crystal back in the box.

Wyatt took a step toward Nathan as Nathan wrapped his arms around himself and shivered.

"What was that?"

"I don't know," Wyatt admitted, "but I don't think you should touch it, again."

Nathan looked at Wyatt with haunted eyes. "I felt as if I had touched evil. And I still feel it."

Wyatt didn't know exactly what had happened, but he had a feeling that this was not a blessing from the goddess Aphrodite.

* * *

Things are not going well at the museum. What do you think the gem did to Nathan?

In the next chapter, Chris gets a phone call from someone he figured he wouldn't hear from, again. You also get to hear the first mention of the reason Chris is currently single, an ex-girlfriend, but I'll let you read the chapter to get the details. Chris doesn't know anything is wrong yet.


	2. A Phone Call

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Another reviewer commented that they knew people who didn't like replies at the top. However, since they were not talking about themself and you are, I will go back to this format. I prefer it anyway. It seems awkward replying to things after there's already been another chapter. I am glad that you otherwise enjoyed the story. As to Nathan, I guess I'll let you wait and see what happened. I'll admit though, that I didn't think about that idea, so obviously, that's not what I did. An interesting idea to be sure.

* * *

Chapter Two – A Phone Call

It had, in Chris Halliwell's opinion, been a good morning. He had been sorry that his brother was gone by the time he had awoken, but that was to be expected. Wyatt had told him the night before that he'd be leaving early.

He heard the phone on the wall ringing and strode over to pick it up. "Halliwell."

"How have you been, stranger?" the voice of his one time friend, David Vandemark.

Chris was stunned. He figured after what happened on his last day at Centennial that would be the last he would hear of David. "David?"

David chuckled. "Yeah, it's me. Again, how have you been?"

"Busy," Chris admitted, not sure what had prompted David to call. "You remember Wyatt's best friend, Seth?"

"Sure," David agreed, "he and Wyatt used to come down to Centennial to try and steal you away for movie night and other such stuff."

"Yeah, well," Chris tried to phrase what he was saying carefully, "he's been gone for a few months and he came back recently and things have just gotten crazier."

"In other words, Wyatt's friend knows about all this . . . magic stuff," David interpreted.

Chris blinked in surprise. "Well, um."

"That's a yes," David surmised. "Why'd you tell him and not me?"

"I didn't," Chris informed him. "And neither did Wyatt if you're curious. He's just a part of that world."

"Oh," David sounded slightly disappointed. "So how's it going working for your mom?"

"I like it," Chris admitted. "I enjoy cooking."

"Seriously, you are strange," David teased, "but I guess that's good that you enjoy cooking since you pretty much do that for a living now. Your other 'job' won't put food on the table." He paused and asked curiously, "Will it?"

Chris chuckled. "No, David, it won't."

"You never know," David shrugged it off. "I'm new to all this."

"And you thought it was like Sabrina, the Teenage Witch," Chris mumbled, remembering Emily's statement when she first found out.

"Er . . . no," David sounded confused. "Who's that?"

"A fictional witch on TV back in the nineties," Chris informed him. "Not applicable to real life, but sounds slightly along the lines of what you were saying. Someone thought of that example a few weeks ago. Since all I knew was that it was a TV show, I looked it up. That girl had it easy."

"Says the guy who can turn himself invisible at will," David retorted.

"Which is not why you called either," Chris decided.

"Well, no," David admitted.

"So what's up?" Chris asked as he settled down on the couch, deciding there was no use standing. This sounded to be a long call.

"I'm thinking of proposing to Rosie," David informed him, referring to his girlfriend of five months and long time friend, Rose Laughlin.

"Uh," Chris hesitated, not sure what to say. "Congratulations? Why are you telling me this before her?"

"I just need someone to talk it out with," David admitted.

"To talk about, right?" Chris questioned, still not sure why he had been chosen to be on the other end if this phone call. He and David had been friends before everything happened in the last few months. When magic had came back and his memories had been messed up he had forgotten everything about David for a couple of weeks. And when he had remembered, nothing had been the same. He was not the same person who had been befriended by David. But then he wasn't the same person who had went to the past to change history either. He was some sort of combination of the two and sometimes it hurt. Sometimes it felt like the only thing that was real was everything that had happened since that point. He sighed and asked the rest of his question, "Not to talk you out of it, right?"

"No," David was quick to assure him, "I want to marry her. I just don't know how to ask."

"And you thought of me," Chris stated, more confused than ever. "I don't exactly have extensive knowledge in that, you know."

"Look, I know it's only been a few months since Jamie broke up with you," David began, "but . . ."

"Ja_n_ie didn't break up with me," Chris informed him. "And it's been over a year since _I_ broke up with her after she hit on my brother."

"Wyatt?" David asked, clearly surprised. "But he had a girlfriend."

"Yeah," Chris agreed.

"And she had a boyfriend," David added, clearly not taking this in.

"I'm aware," Chris stated dryly. "I couldn't really deal with the fact that my girlfriend was hitting on my big brother."

"But she was hot," David protested.

Chris snorted and tried to sound serious as he said, "You're dating Rose. You want to marry Rose."

"Yes," David agreed, sobering up.

"Then, forget my ex," Chris instructed him. "She's not worth the trouble."

* * *

So what do you think about Chris' insight into his ex-girlfriend, Janie?

In the next chapter, my trouble maker warlock is up to something.


	3. Magical Locks

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Don't feel bad that you didn't realize he had a girlfriend. I did not deturmine the relevant information until I wrote that chapter. Oh, I knew there was someone, but I didn't know her name and I didn't know how the relationship had ended. I did know it ended. Now, that I know the basics you will find out more information about her from time to time. I cannot say at this time whether or not she will make an appearance, but Chris is definitely well rid of her.

This next chapter is short, but it should give you info on what my Warlock has planned with the Aphrodite Crystal. Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter Three – Magical Locks

Steve Kessler looked at the lock on the door in front of him with a satisfied grin. The spell he had cast on the chains should both protect them from view and keep them from being broken apart and the door open.

He walked toward the front of the building and the last open able door. He stopped in the front hall and chanted, "Within these halls all magic died. As orbing fails evil will rise. Magical transport cannot from within, or from without be used to rescue them."

The spell cast he walked right out the front door. He turned around and looked at it. "Chain this door, let no one in. Invisible bonds, keep magic in. All attempts bounce off the door, until it's evil to the core."

He chuckled as he pulled at the door and nothing happened. This plan would work. He could feel it. He walked around the building and blinked away.

* * *

I really need to find a way to make "Steve Chapters" longer, but there's not much more I could think to do. Still, I hope short as it was, it got the point across.

The next chapter is longer. It's called "Reacting". The effects of Nathan touching the Aphrodite Crystal are about to show themself and someone else is going to be infected.


	4. Reacting

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Whoops! I should have mentioned that Steve was in the Museum were Wyatt works. He has plans for the gem the demons planted there and he doesn't want anyone to leave while that plan plays out.

Wyatt hasn't figured out what happened to Nathan, so he had gone against his better judgement and continued on. When someone else gets infected that has to stop.

* * *

Chapter Four – Reacting

Nathan had decided to just get back to work. He didn't believe in magic. He didn't believe in blessings or curses. He believed something odd had happened, but he believed there was a scientific explanation, even for the chilling feeling he still felt that evil had somehow possessed him.

Wyatt did not agree with him. He knew magic and _this_ was magic. It wasn't good magic either. He scrutinized the description, but found nothing that could explain what happened. This was _not_ a blessing by any stretch of anyone's imagination. This _was_ magical and this _was_ a curse. Of this Wyatt was sure.

The questions that now pursued Wyatt as he examined the description were who or what had cursed this stone and what was the curse.

The door to the store room opened and Andrew Parker, young man who worked as a tour guide for school groups, entered. "I just let in that accountant who's going through Lauren's accounts. He wanted to talk to you, Wyatt. Can you spare a few minutes?"

Wyatt glanced back at Nathan. His friend was busy sorting through boxes finding which ones went to the new exhibit they were opening in Monday. "Is Lauren here yet?"

Andrew shook his head. "She won't be here until ten."

Wyatt frowned. "Does she know she'd being audited?"

"Andrew nodded. "She said she doesn't have anything to worry about, so why should she show up early."

Wyatt sighed. "Would you mind calling her and telling her to take the day off?"

"And how do you explain that to Hal?" Andrew wanted to know. "Oh!" he exclaimed as he ran over to help Nathan keep a box from toppling over.

To Wyatt's shock the green glow traveled through Andrew from the top of his head down as the action brought Andrew in contact with Nathan. Wyatt groaned and dug into his pocket. This was worse than he thought. He slipped his head into his pocket and pulled out his cell.

"Hey!" Nathan yelled, running at him. "What are you doing?"

Wyatt slipped out of the way, the image of Andrew with the green glow running down his body after touching Nathan still fresh on his mind. "I just need to call my brother. Would that be alright?"

Nathan frowned. After several seconds he nodded. He waved his hand at Wyatt. "Go ahead."

Wyatt pulled out his phone, again. Stepping away from both Nathan and Andrew, he held his phone next to his ear. "Apartment." He watched them as the phone dialed. He scowled when he got a busy signal. He disconnected the call and started another. "Chris."

"Hey, that's two calls," Nathan protested.

Andrew looked at Nathan with a frown. "What's the big deal?"

"He said he needed to call his brother," Nathan informed him, trying to explain.

Andrew just looked confused. "But his brother _is_ Chris."

"Yeah, but the first one wasn't Chris."

"Chris doesn't like to carry his cell," Wyatt informed him quickly as the voice mail turned on. "Look, I need to leave a message." He walked away, so that he was out of ear shot, or as close as he could get. "Chris, problem. I need you to find out everything you can about the Aphrodite Crystal. I think it's cursed."

Nathan must have heard him, because he stalked toward Wyatt.

Wyatt gulped. "There was a green glow," he added as he stepped backward, "around Nathan and then Andrew." He hit the wall. "What do you want, Nathan?"

"Give me the phone," Nathan demanded, reaching out his hand.

"I think Nathan's loosing it," Wyatt whispered and closed the phone. "Catch!" Wyatt called out as he tossed the phone up in the air. He used Nathan's distraction to get out of the way. He didn't want to get infected unless he was sure he could get uninfected.

Nathan caught the phone in mid air and threw it to the ground. As Wyatt and Andrew watched in shock, Nathan ground it under his shoe.

Wyatt grimaced and looked at Andrew. "Can you stay down here with Nathan while I go talk to that accountant?"

Andrew snorted. "Are you kidding me?"

"Don't leave," Nathan ordered, though it wasn't clear whom he was ordering.

"Andrew will stay here," Wyatt informed him. "The accountant asked for me. Remember?"

Nathan looked questioningly at Andrew.

Andrew sighed and nodded. "I'll be here. Just hurry back."

Wyatt nodded quickly. "How about you make that call to Lauren while I'm gone," he suggested.

"No phones," Nathan demanded.

Wyatt sighed and looked at Andrew.

"Just go," Andrew insisted. "The sooner you go . . ."

"The sooner I get back," Wyatt finished. "Yeah, yeah. See you soon." He didn't bother waiting for an answer. As soon as he was out the door he closed it behind him. He glanced down the hall in both directions and orbed out.

Or he tried to.

Blue-white orb lights surrounded him, but nothing else happened.

Wyatt groaned. If he hadn't already been sure there was something demonic going on, this would have settled it. Something might be up with his powers, but there was still the normal way to exit a building. Hopefully once he left he could orb out . . . or at least find a telephone. He needed to finish his call to Chris.

Since the front door was closer than his office and the phone there, he headed that way.

Wyatt reached the front entrance of the museum and pushed on the door. It didn't even vibrate. It wasn't that he expected this to be easy, not after he failed to orb at least, but he had expected the door to open.

He waved his arm at the door and got thrown across the room into the wall, slamming his shoulder hard against it. Wyatt pushed himself up and stared at the door. _Did the door just deflect my powers?_

Wyatt rubbed his shoulder as he walked over to the ticket booth. He unlocked the door and grabbed the phone from in the wall. After several seconds it became clear that there was no dial tone and there wasn't going to be a dial tone.

Wyatt groaned. He needed to tell Chris what was going on and each additional fact he found scared him more. Someone had magically locked them in with a gem that was doing strange things to Nathan's personality and likely to Andrew's given too much more time. And now they'd cut the phone lines.

Wyatt did a mental inventory of who was in the building. He needed to keep anyone not yet exposed away from Nathan, Andrew and the gem. Considering he was already expected by the accountant, he decided to start there.

With one last look at the door he sighed and headed for the stairs. If someone had cut the phone lines and magically sealed the door, he wouldn't put it past them to have done something to the elevator, too.

* * *

Andrew's another of those characters from Charmed, but he was only mentioned. Another member of his family was on Charmed. Can you identify who Andrew is?

Do you think Wyatt will be able to help Nathan and Andrew and will Chris get his message?

In the next chapter "Asking for Help from Dad" someone is still trying to locate the three demons from the previous episode.


	5. Asking for Help from Dad

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - It definitely is a nasty curse and it's just going to get worse as time goes on. And it does do a major number on Nathan, but it does worse to others, which you will see as the story progresses.

You've met Brianna and her dad, but usually it's around her uncle, my warlock, Steve Kessler. Brianna has taken over Aka's obsession with the three demons and she is trying to hunt them down. It's not going well for her dad who is imagining all sorts of things going badly.

* * *

Chapter Five – Asking for Help from Dad

Much as Sean McInnis loved his daughter there were days he was glad that she was an only child. He'd gone into her room to wake her and found a giant map of what looked to be a massive organization of tunnels and caverns, a scrying crystal, and no Brianna. It was the kind of thing that worried a father.

He'd tried her cell phone, but hadn't been surprised when he'd gotten nothing. He suspected that his daughter was a long way out of her carrier's range.

An hour later he was staring down at soggy cereal. If he had any way to get the location pinpointed on the map, he would have gone. As it was he was going to have to trust his daughter and although he knew she was good at what she did, it was hard for a parent to just sit still while their child went hunting for evil.

"Sorry, I'm late," a voice behind him proclaimed sounding a little winded.

"Where have you been, Brianna?" Sean asked concerned as he turned around.

"Underworld," Brianna announced. There were few secrets between father and daughter, but the biggest one was about to be the main point of discussion. "Remember out guests yesterday," she added as she grabbed a bowl and cereal out of the cupboard.

"The two Halliwell boys and their friend," Sean commented, remembering. "What about them?"

"Yesterday we went to The Manor, the restaurant not the home, for dinner," she informed him. "CT was in one of his moods," she added with a chuckle. "You know how he gets sometimes. We barely got our food ordered when Aka say dark demonic auras." She poured her cereal into the bowl and sat down.

"Only you five with have to quantify that a demon has a dark aura," Sean retorted. "Of course not too many people can see those auras in the first place."

Brianna picked up her spoon and toyed with it. "True, but there are other people that realize there are good demons out there. It's a very small group, but they do exist. You saw the Halliwells' friend. He's half demon apparently, so they get that, too."

Sean smiled. "Yes, but none of this is new. Why were you in the underworld, Brianna?"

She frowned. "Apparently the demons we were looking for went into hiding as soon as they did . . . something. We don't know what. Now, one of them is in some sort of isolation chamber to keep him from infecting others. Apparently he's chronically depressed and suicidal with a touch of paranoia in the mix just for 'fun'. I haven't located the other two, but they can't be allowed to stick around."

"This isn't normal for you," Sean commented looking over at his daughter's face. "You tend to avoid these types of battles."

"Doesn't mean we don't fight them if they come to us," she shot back. "CT said they tried to kill someone. And Toby said they tried to poison some people. We can't let them keep this up, even if Max is being weird about it all."

Sean looked at her surprised. "Have you talked to him? Max is usually the first one to want a fight."

"Maybe in a fist fight," Brianna laughed. "Max doesn't much care for magic, and since like CT and I, he hasn't had any for years, it's never meant much to him. And unlike CT and I, he doesn't even have spells."

"Are you saying Max doesn't use magic?" Sean asked her with a look of disbelief.

"Shimmering," she said thoughtfully, "though it was really funny watching him learn it. He uses magic, he just prefers not to. He thinks that magic has the potential to turn him into his father."

Sean considered this and decided not to comment. Brianna had something to say. He would let her just talk.

"I don't understand why he doesn't want to vanquish those demons," she commented, getting back on track, or what appeared to be on track in Sean's mind. "Usually he doesn't have a problem with that. Usually that's reserved for snake demons, usually River."

"River," Sean mumbled the name, thinking. "That's the psychotic seventeen-year-old that broke into the chicken farm to eat raw chickens?"

Brianna was silent for several seconds. When she did speak it was with one word. "Yes."

"And if I remember correctly, Max likes to eat raw chicken eggs?"

"Yes." She paused a second before adding. "He likes other types of eggs, too. It's just chicken eggs are more accessible."

Sean shuddered.

"I know, it's odd," Brianna admitted. "I need your advice, Dad."

Sean looked over at her. "What's the matter? I mean besides the fact that you are obsessed with Max Keegan."

"Haha," Brianna replied sarcastically. "No, I'm not sure what to do about these demons. I can't ask my friends this time."

"Why not?"

"Max is caught up in something to do with an attack yesterday, snake demons he thinks," She informed him. "Aka's not really a great help in a fight. She can tell you who the bad guys are, but she can't do anything about it. Something is very wrong with CT, but I don't know what. Toby followed him home yesterday and I haven't heard from either of them."

"Have you tried going there?"

"Are you kidding me?" Brianna stared at him. "Do you have any idea where they live?"

Sean shook his head. "No, you won't talk about that."

She signed. "Well, let's just say it's not people friendly. I haven't mastered my blinking ability to that extent. I can get across the room, but there . . . forget it. Max can't get there on his own either. No, I have to wait for them to contact me. And not a one of them owns a cell phone."

"Does even one of them have a job?"

Brianna looked down for a second, trying to hide a snigger. "No." She shook her head as she looked back up. No, they most certainly don't have jobs. What would they need them for? Max lives in the underworld and occasionally on the couches within our coven. The others . . . let's just say cell phones would be pointless there."

"All right, so your friends aren't available," Sean admitted. "I'm glad to help, but I am surprised to be asked."

Brianna nodded. "I know I never ask. But you are the one who knows, aren't you?"

"I don't know that I'd go that far," Sean joked, "but I have practiced magic a lot longer than you have, Sweetie. Why don't you tell me everything you know and I will see if I can help?"

Brianna exhaled slowly. "Well, I couldn't just let them get away, so when everyone left last night, I decided to keep looking."

* * *

So do you think that Brianna can find a way to deal with these demons? And what do you think of the insight into her friends?

If anyone was curious about Emily's family, you're about to meet one of them. And Wyatt is going to have very interesting conversation with him in the next chapter, "The Accountant".


	6. The Accountant

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Thanks. I'm glad you think so.

The accountant auditing one of Wyatt's co-workers summoned him to that co-worker's office. Wyatt's more than a little curious why and he figures he needs to make sure they stay put while he figures out what's going on his his office.

* * *

Chapter Six – The Accountant

Wyatt pushed opened the door to Lauren's office and looked in.

A man with medium brown haired had his head bowed over the records on the desk. He didn't appear to have heard the door.

"Are you the accountant?" Wyatt asked as he stepped in.

The man looked up startled. "Wyatt Halliwell?"

Wyatt nodded. "You wanted to see me?"

He nodded back. "Yeah."

"I'm not Lauren's supervisor," Wyatt informed him.

"What?" the man looked at him confused. "Oh, no. Right. No, I just wanted to meet you."

Wyatt looked at him wearily. "Why?"

"Because my sister keeps talking about you."

Wyatt frowned. "Your sister."

"Yeah," the man nodded, again. "More about your brother, but you, too. I figured since I was here where you work . . . I probably should introduce myself, shouldn't I?" He stood and walked over to Wyatt.

Wyatt nodded, expression dry. "Yeah. That would be good."

The man extended his hand. "Nate Colson."

_Colson? Colson? Why does that name sound . . _. "Emily?"

Nate grinned. "That's her."

"I barely know your sister," Wyatt informed him. Sure he'd been the one to hire her. And he'd talked to her a few times when he'd been to The Manor during her shift, but that wasn't enough to have someone's big brother check up on you.

Nate shrugged. "I know, but Em's mentioned you and your brother, and like I said I was already here, so I figured, why not."

Wyatt relaxed. "Well, it's nice to meet you, but I can't chat right now. There's some problem in the museum and I need you to lock this room up until I get back. Okay?"

Nate frowned. "Why would I do that?"

"I need you to do this," Wyatt informed him. "It's probably nothing, but just to be safe."

"If it's nothing, why do I need to do anything?" Nate asked, looking at him skeptically.

"I said, it's _probably_ nothing," Wyatt reminded him. He couldn't exactly tell the guy that he thought people were cursed, now could he, so how did he explain this? "Look, there's some sort of . . . virus."

Nate backed away from him.

"I'm not infected," Wyatt tried to assure him. _At least I don't think I am_, Wyatt added mentally, glad that he hadn't taken the offered hand earlier, just in case. He was not letting Emily's brother get killed. She might take exception to that. "I'm trying to help those who are and . . ."

"Are we under quarantine?"

Wyatt played with the word in his head. "Maybe. Someone locked us in."

Nate gulped. "You mean we can't leave?"

Wyatt exhaled and nodded. "I need you to stay here."

"What if they want to blow us up?" Nate glanced around worried.

"I wouldn't be too concerned with that," Wyatt informed him.

Nate looked at him even more concerned. "What's that?"

"If this disease is anything like I'm guessing, then they won't need to blow us up to kill us."

Nate stared at him. "We've got to get out of here."

Wyatt shook his head. "I can't leave, not when my friends are infected. And I can't call out because the lines are dead and Nathan broke my phone. Any chance you have a cell on you?"

"You just said that we are locked in a building with an infectious virus running rampant," Nate reminded him. "I'm not getting anywhere near you. And you're not touching me phone."

Wyatt sighed. "Look, if you happened to talk to your sister, tell her that the whole bright light moving thing, isn't working."

Nate blinked and stared at him confused. "What?"

"She said it first," Wyatt mumbled. In a louder voice he said, "She'll understand."

"I am not involving my little sister in this."

"Just tell her if you talk to her," Wyatt insisted. "And lock the door behind me."

Nate frowned, but nodded. "When this is fixed you'll make sure someone tells me?"

Wyatt nodded.

"You said we're locked in?" Nate asked suddenly.

Wyatt nodded, again. "Yes."

"Does that include windows?"

Wyatt shrugged. "I haven't tried them, but I wouldn't if I were you. It's a few stories down."

"By maybe someone with a ladder," Nate suggested.

Wyatt shrugged. "Just don't let anyone in this room from the rest of the building, unless I tell you it's safe. If you can get out the window, do it."

Nate watched Wyatt leave. He stared at the door close behind Wyatt and stood there for several seconds. Then, he took some Kleenex off Lauren's desk and pushed the lock with them as a barrier. He wasn't taking any chances and threw the Kleenex in the trash.

He sat back down at the desk and picked up his briefcase. He unlocked it and took out his cell phone. He held it up to his ear. "Matt."

Hopefully his big brother had some useful advice for him.

* * *

So now you have met the "normal" member of the Colson family. In the next chapter, "And the Magician" you will meet the reason Emily knows the magic tricks she was showing off in "Wyatt's Friend". Matt and Nate Colson are very different from each other, but they both love their little sister.


	7. And the Magician

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Give Nate some time. He knows magic, but not real magic. He has no real reason to suspect that there is real magic around . . . not yet.

Emily has never had reason to doubt her intentions to keep magic a secret, but those intentions are about to get tested.

* * *

Chapter Seven – And the Magician

Emily Colson banged her hand at her nightstand. Somewhere in that direction a noise was trying to wake her up. It persisted, so she finally opened her eyes and sat up. She looked around and grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand. "You woke me, Matt."

On the other end of the phone Matt Colson chuckled. "Isn't it a bit late to be in bed, Em?"

"Haha," she replied annoyed. "Why are you calling?"

"You need to quit," he announced.

Emily frowned. "Quit what?"

"Working at the manor," Matt replied.

"I am _not_ quitting my job!" Emily protested vehemently.

"I know it's a great place to eat," Matt allowed, "but if there's insanity in that family . . ."

"There is _not_ insanity in that family!" Emily exclaimed.

"It's just Nate called and he said Wyatt Halliwell locked him in an office," Matt protested.

"Not very well if he has phone access," Emily retorted.

Matt paused.

"You said Nate's in an office," Emily commented. "Where?"

"Nate's auditing someone at the Museum of Natural History," Matt informed her. "There's money going missing or something, so Nate's boss assigned him to look into it."

"Okay," she hedged as she climbed out of bed and started getting dressed for the day. "But what reason did Wyatt give for locking Nate in? Or did Nate tell you?"

"Something about a disease," Matt scowled.

"A disease," she repeated frowning. "What kind of disease?"

"I don't know," he admitted.

She sighed. "I'm calling Nate." She paused and repeated, "I'm _not_ quitting my job. I don't know what Wyatt's up to, but I do know he's _not_ insane."

"Em, that's . . ."

"Matt, he's not," she repeated. "I love you, but back off."

"I'm not backing off if this guy's a danger to my baby sister," Matt argued.

"He's not," Emily assured him, "but we can discuss this later."

She could almost hear Matt's scowl as he replied. "Fine, but be careful."

Emily laughed. "I'm just calling Nate."

"Yeah, yeah," Matt replied.

"Bye, Matt," she pressed.

"Bye, Em," he returned.

She ended the call and immediately reopened it. "Nate." She waited as the phone dialed.

"Em?"

She smiled at the sound of her brother's voice. "Hey, Nate, why would Matt have the idea that Wyatt Halliwell is insane?"

Nate was silent on the other end.

"Nate?"

"He's not insane," Nate admitted, "but the way he was talking about some disease one of the employees caught that could quickly change."

Emily frowned. "What do you mean?"

"He said two things that bothered me," Nate admitted. "But it's nothing you need to . . ."

"Need to what?" Emily interrupted. "Worry about? Of course I do. You're my brother, Nate. Are you in danger?"

"He says I'm not," Nate informed her, "so long as I don't touch anyone infected."

"Is he . . . infected?" Now that she knew her brother was safe she wanted to find out about Wyatt. This whole thing bothered her more than she wanted to admit. She knew Nate would clam up if he thought about it.

Nate sounded distracted as he said, "He says not, but he wouldn't touch me. That didn't bother me nearly as much as what he said after he told me that we were locked in."

Emily frowned. "What do you mean 'we'? I thought you were alone in the office?"

"I am," he agreed. "I am not, however, the only one locked in. According to Wyatt Halliwell, the doors to the building are locked. And he forbid me from leaving this office, told me to keep it locked."

Emily gulped. That wasn't good. And why was Wyatt still in the building. Locked doors shouldn't keep him in.

"You know he mentioned you."

Emily redirected her attention back at her brother. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I wanted to meet him since you know him, so he knew I was your brother and when I wouldn't let him borrow my phone he asked me to deliver a message."

"You wouldn't let him borrow your phone," Emily glared into the air in front of her. Had her brother been there he would have backed off. "Why ever not?"

"He wouldn't shake my hand when I met him," Nate reminded her. "And then he tells me that there's some disease running around that transfer's through touch. I wasn't risking it. I wasn't going to touch that phone after he'd touched it."

"Well, if he asks again then give it to him," Emily demanded. "I'll buy you a new one, if that's what it takes. So what did he want you to tell me?"

"Oh that," Nate sounded amused. "It was kind of bizarre. He said, the whole bright light moving thing wasn't working. Any idea what he meant?"

"Yeah, he was mocking me," she retorted. "Did he say anything else?"

"Not really."

"Well, if you remember anything call me," she ordered. "It's important. If he's delivering messages through you, then I'm willing to bet that he can't call out."

"Right," Nate agreed, remembering something else. "He did say that Nathan broke his phone and I tried using the land line. There's no dial tone."

"Thanks, Nate," she told him sweetly. She was worried, very worried. She doubted that there was a disease floating around. Or if there was, it was probably supernatural in origin. And if Wyatt was resorting to hoping her brother would pass on his message, then he was out of options for communicating outside. "I love you, Nate."

* * *

This chapter and the one before it, you got to meet Emily's brothers, so it seemed only logical to name the chapters after them. Nate is an accountant and though it doesn't mention it in this chapter Matt is a magician.

The next chapter is called "Interruptions". Chris has been having a nice day so far. He doesn't know anything's wrong. And he's not the only one whose nice day is about to get interrupted. Seth has plans to spend an uneventful day with his little brother, but things don't always go the way people plan.


	8. Interruptions

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Oh, she's definitely going to pass on the message. She is facinated with magic and it hasn't hit her yet how dangerous it can be to mess with it when you don't know what you are doing. Besides she figures it's serious if Wyatt's passing messages through Nate.

The title for this chapter comes from the fact that the phone calls involve interrupt the good days the people on the receiving end are having. Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter Eight – Interruptions

Chris hung up the phone with a smile on his face. It was nice to talk to David, again. Clearly David wasn't really good with the whole magic thing, but he'd missed the chance to chat with his friend. While the conversation had been a little awkward, once he'd gotten David off the subject of Janie and onto Rose and other people from work, it had gone well enough. Or at least well enough for the first conversation after David had learned his secret.

Chris headed for the kitchen just as the phone began ringing, again. He stopped and grabbed it up. He didn't recognize the image on the screen. "Halliwell."

"Well, thank goodness for that," Emily announced. "I've been trying to get through for fifteen minutes. I was about to give up and call your mom. The only thing stopping me was the fact that it is awkward talking to your mom about magic."

Chris frowned. "Emily? What about magic?"

"I don't know, but I know something's wrong when Wyatt is passing massages on to me through my brothers, probably so I would pass them on to you."

"Wyatt, what?" Chris stared at her. "What's wrong with Wyatt?"

"I don't know," she repeated. "My brother, Matt, felt the need to call and suggest I quit working at The Manor, because the owner's son was insane. I called my other brother, Nate, and he told me he's at the museum where Wyatt works and Wyatt told him they are locked in. Nate told me that Wyatt forbid him from leaving the office he's in and told him to keep it locked. And then Wyatt told him to pass on a message to me. It was a tad mocking, but the basic point was he can't orb. Or at least I think that was the point."

Chris gulped. "Then, why didn't he call me?" he asked as he headed into his room and grabbed up his phone. He looked down at the "1 missed call" message on his cell. He flipped it open and checked. "He left me a message. Thanks for calling, Emily. I'll handle this from here."

"Don't be so sure," Emily suggested. "Wyatt told Nate that someone named Nathan broke his phone. It's possible my brother might by the only one who can get messages from your brother to you and I don't think he'll want to talk to a stranger at the moment."

Chris inhaled and exhaled slowly. "Emily this is dangerous."

"And my brother is at risk," she reminded him annoyed.

"Call me if he calls . . ."

"With what?" she asked, sounding more annoyed. "I'll be on the phone."

Chris scowled. "Landline or cell, whichever he doesn't call on. Otherwise let us handle this, Emily."

Emily sighed. "Don't let my brother die."

It wasn't something he could promise. "I'll do my best."

"Well, you're best better be good enough."

"Or what?" Chris asked. "You'll do what? Expose me."

"No," she replied without hesitation. "I told you I wouldn't. No threat, just don't let my brother die."

Chris smiled a little. "From the sound of it, your brother is in the best shape of everyone in that building, but I will do my best to get him, and anyone else, safely out. Now, I have a message to listen to, so if you'll let me get on that."

"Bye," she said on cue.

Chris hung up the phone and pressed the playback button on his cell. Putting it up to his ear he listened to his brother's voice.

"Chris, problem," the recording announced. "I need you to find out everything you can about the Aphrodite Crystal. I think it's cursed." There was a slight pause before Wyatt continued, "There was a green glow around Nathan and Andrew."

Chris heard a bang on the other end followed by, "What do you want, Nathan?" and "Give me the phone," in a vaguely familiar voice. "I think Nathan's loosing it," Wyatt's voice announced before the call abruptly ended.

"Aphrodite Crystal," Chris mumbled as he closed the phone and picked up the other one, again. "Seth." He waited as the phone dialed.

"I told you movie night was out tonight," Seth Silberman greeted him with.

"Wyatt's in trouble," Chris informed him. "Do you want to help me?"

Seth sighed. "I'm spending the day with Peter. Wyatt can get himself out of trouble."

"Seth, this isn't just some easy fix," Chris informed him. "Something's got Wyatt trapped at his work and he can't even call me anymore, because one of his co-worker's broke his phone."

"Why doesn't he just orb out?" Seth asked, sounding resigned.

"According to the message he had Emily's brother pass on to her, he can't orb."

"He's passing messages through Emily?" Seth asked in disbelief, followed by even more disbelief as he asked, "He's passing messages through her brother? What does he think the whole family should be trusted, just because you trust her?" Seth shook his head. "Sounds like a stretch."

"We can discuss that when my brother isn't trapped in a building with people he thinks are cursed," Chris informed him, cross.

"Cursed?" Seth asked, curiosity in his voice.

"That's what he said," Chris agreed. "Does the Aphrodite Crystal mean anything to you?"

"Not a thing," Seth admitted. "I mean I know who Aphrodite was, the mythological . . ."

"Nothing mythological about the gods and goddesses," Chris interrupted him. "She was real."

Seth sighed. "Fine. The goddess of love, or maybe it's lust. I'm not really sure on that."

Chris scowled.

"At any rate, what has she to do with this?"

"I don't know," Chris admitted. "Any chance you can do some research on it? That's about the only clue Wyatt got to me. If you come over, I get playback his message for you. It's really short though."

"I'm staying here, for now," Seth informed him. "Peter can help me research this. He'll think it's fun. And as long as all we're doing is research, I'm not concerned."

"This is for Wyatt," Chris insisted. "Couldn't you show a little more interest?"

"Chris, Wyatt is my best friend," Seth reminded him, "but Peter is my brother. I promised him I'd spend the day with him and if I can I will keep it. If you need me physical presence, I will come, but if I'm only doing research, I will do it from home."

Chris sighed. "All right. See what you can find about the Aphrodite Crystal and if there is any connection between it and a green glow or people losing it. That's about all I knew anyway."

"And what will you do?" Seth asked.

"I'm going to the manor to take a look at the book," Chris informed him. "Hopefully there is something useful in there."

"I'll call your cell if I find anything," his friend told him. "So make sure you have it on you."

"Got it," Chris agreed as he stuck the cell into his pocket. "Bye."

* * *

Seth's nice orderly day with his brother has taken a turn he didn't expect. And Chris goes from an enjoyable time talking with David for the first time since David learned his secret to finding out his brother is in trouble . . . and Chris still doesn't know about what was in the sandwich he ate the night before.

The next chapter is called "From Annoying to Desperate" and things are about to get worse for Wyatt as he returns to where Nathan and Andrew are in the stock room.


	9. From Annoying to Desperate

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - I'd love to say you're wrong, but looking back at it, yes, he is being rude. That's not his intention (or mine), but that is the result. He's a bit uncomfortable with putting Peter close to magical trouble. Peter does not have the same opinion. I'm glad you won't hold it against him.

Wyatt knows something is wrong, but he didn't expect to find this.

* * *

Chapter Nine – From Annoying to Desperate

"Help!" Nathan's scream greeted Wyatt long before he reached the storage room.

Not knowing what to expect Wyatt ran as fast as he could. He shoved open the door gaped at what he saw.

Nathan was getting ready to scream again as he pointed frantically at the center of the room.

Andrew hung from a rope tied from the arm of a tall statue. His eyes were bugged out and a gagging sound could be heard coming from his throat.

Certain he didn't have time for anything else, Wyatt blinked and kept running. The rope orbed onto the ground behind him and Andrew fell to the ground, banging his head hard against the floor. Wyatt dropped to his knees and held his hands over Andrew. "Don't die, Andrew," Wyatt ordered him before he focused his attention fully on his attempt to heal his friends wounds before it was too late.

"What just happened?" Nathan asked, looking at him oddly.

"Not now, Nathan," Wyatt demanded. "Andrew's hurt."

"But he's down," Nathan commented.

Wyatt sighed in relief as his hands glowed golden.

Nathan stared down at him. "What on earth . . ?"

"Ignore it," Wyatt ordered. It wasn't that he expected to be listened to, but that he really wished Nathan would just ignore him. It suddenly hit him that trying to explain magic to his nonmagical friends would be extremely difficult. To explain it to Nathan would be nearly impossible.

"Get away from him!" Nathan exclaimed suddenly jumping at Wyatt.

Wyatt rolled away from Andrew and Nathan startled. "What's wrong with you, Nathan?"

"The green glow was bad," Nathan announced advancing on Wyatt. "And now your covering Andrew with a gold glow. That's probably bad too."

"Nathan think," Wyatt implored him. "Andrew's my friend. Why would I hurt him?"

Nathan wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. "You don't have any idea how it feels like. That glow was evil."

"We'll fix it," Wyatt promised. "We'll find a way to fix it."

"I understand why he did it," Nathan mumbled.

"Did what?" Wyatt looked down at Andrew and back up at Nathan. "Do you mean Andrew?"

"Who else?" Nathan gulped. "When I saw him stringing up that rope, I didn't understand at first. Why would anyone just do that? But it's the glow. It's evil and I'd do almost anything to escape it. Maybe even that."

"Well, don't," Wyatt insisted. "We'll find a way to fix it, a better way that doesn't leave you dead."

"What if I want to be dead?" Nathan asked getting right up in Wyatt's face.

"Then think of Lacey," Wyatt instructed him, "and your baby that's going to need a father."

Nathan drew in several quick breaths. "Lacey. Glory."

"Glory?" Wyatt looked at him curiously.

"The baby," Nathan explained. "We're having a girl and we're naming her Glory Dawn Hensley."

_Glory?_ Wyatt dared not question the name again, not allowed, but it baffled him. "Not Gloria?" Apparently he dared.

Nathan smiled. "No, not Gloria. Glory fits better."

A low moan drew their attention back to Andrew. Andrew pushed himself up and rubbed the back of his head. "What happened?"

"Are you okay?" Nathan asked.

Andrew shook his head. "I've got a massive headache. What happened?"

"You . . ." Nathan couldn't continue. He just sighed.

Andrew's hand moved from the back of his head to the front of his throat. "The rope's gone," he commented, as if having a rope around one's neck was normal. He looked around and his eyes stopped on Wyatt. He climbed and advanced on him. "You weren't here. You did something to the rope, didn't you?"

Wyatt nodded as he backed away. "I got it off of you before you killed yourself."

"I wanted to kill myself!" Andrew exclaimed. "I wanted to get away from this feeling!" he yelled as he grabbed Wyatt by the shoulders and shook him. "Why didn't you let me?"

Wyatt stared at Andrew's hands shaking his shoulders as if through someone else's eyes. He say a green glow shoot down Andrew's arms right into him. And he felt the chill of terror shoot through him as the green glow continued down his body. Backed up against the wall as he was there was no place to go. He could shake Andrew off, but what was the point?

Andrew had infected him.

* * *

Wyatt is infected now. Do you think he made the right choice there? And what do you think of Andrew's responce to what's going on? Nathan's a bit irrational, but he's not that far gone.

In the next chapter Seth and Peter research the "Aphrodite Crystal" and find something very interesting.


	10. Peter's Research

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - The gem does not change anyone's moral allegiance. I think perhaps this chapter will give you a better idea of what it does.

Second, a very Happy Thanksgiving to everyone (especially those who are in the US, since I know not every country celebrates it)! Hope you have a great day and get to enjoy family around you.

Seth and his little brother, Peter, are working on trying to find out information to help Wyatt and Chris.

* * *

Chapter Ten – Peter's Research

"Why are we researching the goddess of love?" Peter Silberman asked Seth as he skimmed down an internet page. "It hardly seems like a fun brotherly activity."

Seth looked over at his little brother. "Maybe we can try and make is seem like it is."

Peter looked at him bemused. "I am researching the _goddess_ of _love_. How is that in anyway manly?"

Seth shrugged. "First off you're supposed to be researching the Aphrodite Crystal, not the goddess herself."

Peter frowned and opened a new page on the internet browser. He typed in "Aphrodite Crystal" and pressed enter. A long list scrolled down the page. "Do you have more than that?"

Seth considered the info Chris had given him. "Green glow?"

Peter's frown grew. He typed it in and pressed enter before he turned around to look at his brother. "What are we researching this for?"

Seth sighed and put down the book he was looking through. He walked over and stood next to his little brother's chair. "Remember what I explained about why I was going to be gone so long?"

Peter nodded. "I remember. You said your mother was a demon and that because of that you could blend in, so you were spying on the bad demons. You also said you weren't going to do that, again, be gone for so long."

"And I won't," Seth promised. "but sometime there's going to be things I need to do."

Peter sighed and looked back at the screen. "Wyatt's in trouble, huh?"

Seth nodded, trying to hide a chuckle. "You understand that because I have the ability to do something about this, I feel the need to do so."

"Uh huh," Peter nodded, unconvinced. "Why can't Wyatt do this research himself?"

"Chris said . . ."

"Wait," Peter interrupted. "Chris said? Why would Chris call you? Why not Wyatt?"

"Because Wyatt's in trouble," Seth informed him, "and can't even contact Chris directly."

Peter considered this and glanced back at the screen. "And this Aphrodite stone has something to do with it?"

"Crystal," his brother corrected. "It's Aphrodite Crystal. Have you found anything?"

"Well, sure," Peter grinned. "Green glow doesn't exactly come into most people's mind when they consider the phrase 'Aphrodite Crystal'. I only have a handful of results. Want to take a look?"

Seth looked over his brother at the page Peter had chosen.

"I had heard of a stone, beautiful and blessed by the Goddess Aphrodite herself. I did much to acquire it and now I fear I am going mad. I feel as if terror is following me and will never leave me alone. For seven days I tried every imaginable way and some unimaginable to end my life, to escape this feeling of evil that follows me.

"Most of these attempts ended before they even begun for friends wiser than I stopped me on my first attempt and tied me up. With peril to their own lives I might add, for they too are going mad with it. Two of my friends tied themselves up before the terror caught up with them and then another friend fed us, ever careful not to touch any of us. You see when my friends realized my obsession with this stone, the Aphrodite Crystal, they looked into it, themselves.

"It was indeed blessed by the Goddess Aphrodite, but soon after it found its way into the hands of evil. Where Aphrodite had blessed it to help the barrier find love, the curse twisted that so that even their own selves they hated. And at the same time they lashed out at every one near fearing that the world was out to get them.

"I had not realized what a horrible thing I was doing until I saw that green glow climb through the body of my best friend as he tried to keep me from killing myself. I have knowingly and willfully committed myself to a life I wish I had never done. Though seven days have come and gone and it has now lessened the inner hatred, the outer fear, the depression, melancholy and all else that comes with this curse, I will never fully be rid of it. I thankfully cannot contaminate anyone else with it, for that part of it fully leaves after seven days, but I have condemned my best friend to this same life and that is far worse than anything else.

"It is a lonely life I now must chose, for I cannot imagine allowing others into it. And yet, there they are, my dear, dear friend, come to my apartment to take me bowling. That almost makes me laugh, almost, for we all know I cannot bowl."

Seth felt sad as he read the words in the article. This clearly was about the crystal Wyatt had tried to call Chris about. And he knew that if that was what it took to save his best friend, he would do exactly what this man's best friend had done.

Peter clicked back the page and opened another one. It was much the same, a testimonial of sorts. They read it in silence, but found nothing new. It was the third article that stunned them.

When they finished reading it in silence, Seth looked at his little brother. "Peter, would you mind printing this out along with that first article?"

Peter shrugged. "Sure, but why?"

"Chris is going to want to look at these."

Peter frowned. "We could just email them to him."

Seth shook his head. "Not to Chris. He prefers paper to machines."

"You mean he doesn't use computers?" Peter looked at his brother astounded, as if the idea of no computers was completely foreign to him.

Seth laughed. "No, he uses computers," he assured his little brother. "He has the latest in laptop technology. And his phone that he always forgets is such new technology that it wasn't even out on the market yet when he got it. I think it was a bribe from his ex-girlfriend to keep quiet about something, but she never said as much and the person she wanted him not to talk to already knew about it."

Peter laughed at that. "Well, then maybe he ought to learn to like technology. It's very useful."

"Yeah, maybe," Seth agreed, "but for now, he doesn't, so would you mind printing those out and then see if any of the other articles might be useful." Hearing the printer start working, he smiled.

Peter went back to the search engine and clicked on a new link. He blinked in surprise. "I'd say this is relevant. Look who wrote it."

Seth read the first lines and sighed. "Well, that ought to be interesting. Yeah, print it. We'll read it later."

Peter hit print and went back to the previous page as soon as it started. He clicked two more and found nothing helpful. He clicked the last link and found a blog. He was about to click back when he noticed the name at the top of the blog. "Nicholas Martinez."

"What?" Seth looked over his shoulder. "What's this?"

Peter opened the page search and found the two mentions of the Aphrodite Crystal on it. He read the short paragraph and turned to look at his brother. "I think you have to talk to this guy."

At the bottom of the page the last entry dated April 22, 2027 read, "Someone stole the Aphrodite Crystal. I checked my camera last night and it was gone. For those of you who don't know what the Aphrodite Crystal and its green glow are . . . good. It is extremely evil, or as evil as an inanimate object can get. It ruined the lives of my three closest friends and all I could do was watch."

* * *

Peter found some interest information and now they've got something to do. And there is no way Peter is letting Seth get away with leaving him behind.

In the next chapter, "Revelations" Chris gets a chance to see what Peter found and you get to read the other two entries that interested Peter. To Chris they have even more significance, because he recognizes some names. Want to find out who?


	11. Revelations

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Well, he can try.

In the last chapter Peter found some information the form of some blog type things on the internet. The ones he read were by a man who found the Crystal and one of his friends. In this chapter, his other two friends are identified. And one of those names is going to catch Chris' attention.

* * *

Chapter Eleven – Revelations

Chris stared down at the three sheets of paper Seth had dropped off. Seth had shimmered in, placed them on the table, and left without so much as a word. Chris picked up the paper at the top of the short pile. On it Seth had written "Jarod". He looked down the words on the paper and read.

"According to anyone you could possibly ask, these are the ravings of a mad man, and they'd be right. But for once I am completely in control of my mind. Not that I've ever been out of control of my mind. It's just that sometimes when fear grips you, it seems like it.

"There is something about a visit from my friends that calms me. Or perhaps I should say a visit from my friend, for while I see my wife, daughter, one of my other close friends, and on occasion even the other, it is this one that seems to leave me at ease. I think that is because when I was at my worst . . . the people here do not understand what that is . . . he was there and he was there only to help me.

"I can already feel the evil pressing in on me and soon the director here is going to notice that I broke into his office, so I cannot wait too long to post this.

"I want to go home. I want to have never heard of the Aphrodite Crystal, to never have seen that green glow. I want this all to stop. And yet, I cannot regret it, for while I have lost years of my life, Reggie is still alive.

"But why did it have to be at the stake of my own sanity?"

Chris frowned. Certainly it was about the Aphrodite Crystal, but there didn't appear to be any useful information other than the fact that the man had survived. And he wondered where Seth had found the name, because the only name he saw was "Reggie" and the user name of JP1975 appeared to be the only clue to the man's identity.

He picked up the second paper. The name Everett was written unnecessarily at the top, unnecessarily because it read like an Al-anon testimonial.

"My name is Everett and I am cursed."

Chris's frown grew deeper. Surely it didn't mean . . . but then how many Everett's could there be out there. Thousands he supposed, but . . .

"I can already see the eyes rolling and hear the sighs. You don't believe me. Fine. This isn't for you anyway. This is for those people who haven't rolled their eyes or sighed in disbelief. This if a warning to those of you who understand and fear curses or even who don't understand, but are willing to listen.

"My best friend, Reggie, is a collector of sorts, but then aren't we all in one way or another. For Reggie it was gems, jewelry, rare glass works, and stuff like that."

That cut it. There might be countless Everett's out there, but how many had a best friend named Reggie. Of course this would be written by someone the other him had known. Of course it would.

"A rare and beautiful crystal came to Reggie's attention, a stone said to be blessed by the Goddess Aphrodite. Of course, we didn't believe any of that, who would? Still, something about it didn't ring true, so together with another friend, Jarod, I began an investigation.

"The first thing I learned was that almost every owner in known history had died by their own hands within a day of acquiring it. I called and told Reggie, but he brushed this off as nonsense. Of course I'd always thought it was.

"The second thing I learned was of those who did survive the first day, they still had another six days of absolute terror where their foremost thought is ending it all and close behind that is the idea that everyone else was out to get them. That feeling never fully goes away, as I now fully know, but it lessens. After the first week they were not at suicidal, but always melancholy, always changed, except for one. That one, I learned, stated that he simply refused to let evil control him. I don't know how he had the will to do that.

"With all this information the one thing we didn't find was a cure. We found evidence of one, but we couldn't find anything concrete about it no matter how hard we looked and then we simply ran out of time. We learned that Reggie had located the crystal and taken possession of it, which meant that it had already infected him. We didn't have time for cures. We had to act.

"We found another friend who we could trust to help us and do as we said, without question. We then found Reggie and Jarod and I tied him up, while our friend, Nick, waited and attempted to give instruction on the side. No one appreciated that much. We told him to stay away. He did and asked how he was supposed to feed us if he couldn't get near us. Smart aleck.

"He found ways though. Staying several feet from us at all times he still managed to feed us. And he kept us from killing our selves. He did not, however keep us from yelling ourselves hoarse, shouting obscenities at each other, or in general being extremely obnoxious to him and each other. But then, that's not really that unusual.

"After one week, eight days actually (just in case), he untied us, and we learned that Jarod probably could have escaped at any point in time. At the time I thought that meant he must have had an extremely high will power . . . I was wrong.

"It took fifteen years before Jarod went completely mad with it. His wife was forced to put him in an insane asylum. I saw the look of betrayal in his teenage daughter's eyes as he was taken away.

"It's been ten years since then. Reggie is doing well for himself, though I have twice found him contemplating suicide for the constant barrage of depression and to escape the feel of evil. I nearly tried it once myself. Then, my daughter ran into the room and asked if she could have the rope for one of her brother's experiments. I never once thought of it, again. I do not believe my children ever knew what I was thinking that day.

"You would not know what I was going through if you met me on the street. You would not realize the terror I go through every day, or understand quite how much I dearly hold to those closest to me, my lifeline. My own son goes blithely around, working on his experiments, not understanding why sometimes I don't want to talk, sometimes I simply cannot share his enthusiasm, and sometimes I seem angry when no one has done anything to anger me. My darling daughter has a happy go lucky personality that I miss, for once I had one like it.

"I have never found the cure. I will never quit looking, because if there is a way to get rid of this evil that haunts me, this depression that fills me, I will take it in a minute . . . so long as it does not involve the death that would surely hurt my wife and kids more than my depression ever could. And if I can find a way to aid Reggie or save Jarod, I will.

"Nick told me that the closest he ever found to a cure were words written in an old book saying only "Ijah took the potion from the witch and drank it. Before she had even finished it she felt a change and she saw a green glow emanate from her body. It gathered in a cloud in front of her and dissipated. A feeling replaced it, one she nearly didn't recognize for the ten long years she had been without it. Ijah felt happy."

"Sadly it is fiction, but the description is close enough that I wonder if perhaps it is based on a situation similar to ours. Only it has been twenty-five years and still we have found no cure.

"You may not believe me. You probably don't believe me, but every word I wrote is the truth as I know it. I write this for two reasons. The first is to warn. If anyone out there is thinking of finding the Aphrodite Crystal . . . don't. It is far too dangerous. And secondly, if you do know the cure, please find me. I don't want to feel this way any longer than I can prevent it. If you truly wish to find me I have provided all the information you need here.

"Be careful."

The last one with the name "Reggie" written on it seemed almost irrelevant, though it provided useful information. Everett Lawson had told Chris everything he needed to know. Or at least everything except for how to cure the curse.

It was funny, Mr. Lawson hadn't seemed cursed when Chris had known him in the other time line and yet he must have been. It had been at least twenty-five years since this happened, so it had been at least three years before Chris was even born.

Then, another thought hit him. If Everett was Everett Lawson, and he surely was, then Reggie was Reginald Hollis, which meant that his former boss, who he had seen nearly every day for over a year, was also cursed, and Chris had never noticed.

But then if someone had been cursed for over twenty-five years they either went crazy or they learned to control their outer reactions.

A knock on the apartment door brought Chris out of his thoughts. He flipped over the papers, just in case whoever there came in. He didn't want to explain why he had them.

There was another knock as Chris reached the door. He pulled it open and looked into the face of landlord, Mr. Logan. Surprised he stepped out of the way. "Hi, Mr. Logan, what brings you here?" Mr. Logan had to be ninety, but he got around better than some people half his age and he still did some of the work on his apartments.

"Hello, Christopher." For whatever reason, Mr. Logan liked to call him by his full name rather than his nickname. He stepped in and walked toward the bathroom. "There have been complaints from the apartment below yours."

Chris blinked in surprise. "Really?"

Mr. Logan nodded and turned to look at him. "There's water damage along the wall."

"Oh," Chris replied dumbly.

"I'm just trying to see if I can find the source before I call the plumber."

"I see."

Mr. Logan looked at a picture on the wall of Chris and Wyatt with their parents. There was an odd look on his face as he turned to look back at Chris. "Who are these with you and your brother?"

"That's our parents," Chris informed him.

"Their names?"

"Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt," Chris informed him, pointed unnecessarily at each in turn.

Mr. Logan gulped. "I see." There was an odd silence, before he spoke again. "Well, I'd better check for that leak."

"Can you check later?" Chris requested. "I'm kind of in the middle of something and I don't need plumbers in and out of the apartment."

"Not really," Mr. Logan replied. "No, it's gone too long as is. They took their time letting me know. If you had seen the apartment below you, you wouldn't ask. Maybe it will be the apartment above you."

"I doubt it," Chris retorted. "No, I haven't seen any evidence of this, so I doubt it's above me."

Mr. Logan nodded. "It will only take me a minute to check that. I suggest you find somewhere else to go for the day if you need peace and quiet. Sorry, Christopher."

"Yeah, me, too," Chris sighed. "I'm just going to grab a few things and I'll let you see yourself out. Have a good day, Mr. Logan."

Mr. Logan smiled and nodded.

As Mr. Logan headed into the bathroom, Chris headed back into the living room and grabbed the papers Seth had brought along with his laptop. He needed to head over to the manor and check the book anyway. He closed his eyes, ready to orb out.

Except nothing happened.

* * *

And now Chris knows that something is wrong.

So what do you think caught Mr. Logan's attention?

The next chapter is called "The Blogger". Seth's tracked down the blogger who left the message about the "Aphrodite Crystal". What do you think he will find?


	12. The Blogger

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Actually, he recognized Leo's face first and then yes, his name. But keep in mind, any war buddy of Leo's would be over one hundred. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean this guy isn't, but it's pushing it more than I already do. In "Saving Private Leo", the men there who were survivors were in their late seventies and in their eighties. I suppose some could have been older. It's been another twenty-five years since then. But he definitely has a connection to Leo's past.

What would it do to a person to be forced to sit by and watch as their best friend slowly went mad, knowing that they might have switched places with him? That is the place Nick Martinez is in.

* * *

Chapter Twelve – The Blogger

Seth and Peter sat in Seth's old red Ford Fusion. Seth compared the address he had gotten out of the phone book with the one on the door. "Looks like this is it."

"Yeah," Peter replied sardonically. "I figured that out five minutes ago. Are we going in?"

Seth frowned. "No, I think _we_ are not going in. We don't know anything about this guy, so I don't think it's a good idea for you to come in with me."

"Seth, I'm not a little kid," Peter protested. "I want to help you with this. I'm the one who found out about him in the first place."

Seth looked at his brother through narrow eyes.

"Besides, you took me here," Peter commented innocently. "You can't leave me in the car."

Seth scowled and then snorted. "Right. Come on."

Peter grinned and did a little arm pump move before opening his door and getting out. He followed his brother to the front door of the single level, single dwelling house. He reached the door first and tap on it.

Several seconds went by before they heard the sound of footsteps. The door opened and a man in his fifties pulled open the door and looked at them. "I thought I told your friends I was not going to buy anything."

"Nicholas Martinez?" Seth asked the shaggy haired man in front of him.

The man sighed and nodded. "And you are?"

"Did you write this?" Peter asked, holding up the copy he had printed out of the blog.

Nick groaned. "Can't I post something on my blog without having every freak in the world coming out of the woodwork?"

Seth scowled. "I think I liked Wyatt's twin's terms better."

Peter looked at him, surprised. "Wyatt has a twin?"

Seth nodded. "Now, she's a freak."

"Are you planning on just standing there yakking, or do you intend to tell me why I should talk to you?" Nick asked.

"What did she call you?" Peter whispered.

Seth chuckled and learned down. "Demon. What else?"

"And you liked that?" Peter asked perplexed.

Seth shrugged. "At least it's accurate." In a normal voice he looked at Nick and said, "I am not a freak."

"Whatever," Nick glared at him. "You are however on my front step not telling me why."

"Seth," Seth informed him holding out his hand. "And this is my little brother, Peter."

"And my blog brought you here why?" Nick asked wearily.

"The Aphrodite Crystal showed up at my best friend's work this morning," Seth informed him matter of fact. "I need information."

It took a second for the words to sink in and then Nick groaned. "Come in. I don't know that I can help you much. If he's been cursed . . ." he shrugged his shoulders in defeat, "there's not much I can do or say to help."

"You and your friends seem to be the experts," Seth informed him as he and Peter entered the cluttered house. "Interesting décor."

Nick shrugged as he shut the door behind them. "After last night I've been looking through everything I have on the Crystal to see if there is any reason some idiot would knowingly get close to it." He waved a hand at the couch. "Have a seat."

Peter plopped down on the couch, bouncing a little. "Good springs on this one."

Nick grinned. "Yep. Ev always . . . anyway. You wanted information on the Crystal."

"Why don't we start with what you wrote here," Seth started, taking note of the hesitant almost statement for later. "You said the Crystal was stolen. How do you know? And stolen from where?"

Nick hesitated and then walked over to the computer desk. He moved some papers that had fallen on his keyboard. He tapped the screen and typed some words into the web browser. A web site popped up and he tapped several levels of sub boards and got out of the way.

The camera was pointed on green glowing crystal, nestled into a rock next in a cavern. Seth watched the screen as three men walked into view of the camera. He listened as the argued over how to package the crystal into a box and then came the part that scared him.

"Is it worth it?" one of the men on the screen asked, looking doubtfully at the packaged gem.

"Only if it works," the second man on the screen decided. "If it fails. . ."

"Humans will probably die even if it fails in its purpose," the third man commented.

Seth shivered at the words.

"The cure?" the first man asked, though there was no doubt in Seth's mind that all three were demons.

"Exceedingly hard to get," the second remind him, having already said as much earlier.

"Which means there is one," Nick mumbled.

Seth shushed him and continued to listen.

"The witch will suffer even if he doesn't die," the first one commented, sounding like he wanted reassurance.

_Wyatt_, Seth realized. These demons had stolen the Crystal specifically to get at Wyatt.

"What are you thinking?" the second and clearly more knowledgeable asked.

Seth watched amazed at the first demon walked up to the box and picked it up. The demon shrugged at the other two and shimmered out with the box.

Nick tapped the screen and the video paused. "They sound like they really want to hurt a witch. And those guys creep me out, so I'm not sure what to make of that. Aren't witches bad?"

"Not on this planet they aren't," Seth retorted. "Those were the bad guys."

"Clearly," Nick replied scowling. "But that doesn't mean they aren't after someone evil, too."

"Well, they aren't," Seth informed him. "I believe I read that you have a book about someone named Ijah who was saved from this by a witch."

"But that's fiction," Nick protested.

"I rather doubt it," Seth replied. "Oh, the names may have been changed to protect people, especially if it was published during the lifetime of those involved, but most likely it's fact."

"But that's crazy."

"Your friends are cursed," Seth reminded him. "And you think that book being fact is crazy?"

That caused Nick to pause. "Well. Um."

"Yeah, I thought so," Seth smirked. "May I see the book?"

Nick walked away from the desk and over to the book case. He grabbed an old ratty looking book and brought it over to Seth. "There's not a whole lot in there. And while it mentions a potion that Ijah drinks, it doesn't say what's in it."

"Of course not," Seth mumbled as he looked through the small book. "That would be too easy. And this never is."

Nick looked at him curiously. "What are you mumbling about?"

"Oh, nothing," Seth assured him. "It just would have surprised me if the potion was in there."

"I guess," Nick replied, uncertain. "If you find the cure, can you bring it back here?"

Seth looked at him. "If you tell me where to go, I can bring it directly to your friends."

"You won't be able to get to Jarod," Nick informed him. "Only a select list can get in there."

"I can get in," Seth assured him.

"Well, without me, you won't get him to take it," Nick informed him.

Seth inclined his head. "That's probably true. Could you at least give me some last names to go with your friends, so I can try and talk to the other two, Everett and Reggie."

Nick considered this and nodded. "Ev's last name is Lawson. Phone's listed under his son, Miles, though, as is probably everything else. Miles is an inventor and Ev has a hard time holding down a job. He quit trying when Miles started making more than twice what he was. Reggie's last name is Hollis. He's actually done all right for himself, considering. He's the manager of . . ."

"Centennial," Seth interrupted. "That's some coincidence."

Nick looked at him confused. "How's that?"

"I told you the Crystal showed up at my best friend's work."

Nick nodded.

"Well, his brother used to work at Centennial."

Nick chuckled. "Yeah, that's odd. That is Reggie."

Seth nodded. "Who would know the most about the Crystal?"

"You're looking at him," Nick informed him. "I don't know how much I can help, but I'm definitely the one who knows the most."

Seth nodded. "Then, tell me everything you can and I'll pass it on to my friends."

Nick walked over to the couch and sat down on the opposite end from Peter. "This could take a while."

* * *

Don't get too excited. Most of what Nick knows is rumor and insinuations that are false, but he knows a lot of both of those things.

What do you think of the fact that Chris knows two of the people cursed by this (while knows one and the other him knew the other)?

The next chapter is back to Chris. It's called "Worry and a Witness". Chris and Seth aren't the only ones looking into this.


	13. Worry and a Witness

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Thanks.

Chris is dealing with the stunning fact that his powers don't seem to be working. He gets a visitor he didn't expect.

* * *

Chapter Thirteen – Worry and a Witness

Chris sat on the couch stunned. How could this happen? How could his powers just stop working? He'd tried using his telekinesis, but nothing had moved, not even an inch. The same thing happened when he tried to orb something to him. Nothing.

"Definitely coming from your bathroom," Mr. Logan informed Chris from the doorway. "I'm going to the call the plumbers, but I thought you were going somewhere."

Chris nodded. "I need to grab my keys." It seemed quite a dumb thing to say to someone who was as old as Mr. Logan. He probably couldn't drive anymore.

"Are you all right?"

_No_. Chris hesitated just long enough to bring a frown to Mr. Logan's wrinkled face. "Don't worry about me."

"Which means do worry," Mr. Logan commented. "Christopher, if you're sick, you should see a doctor."

"I'm not sick," Chris assured him. _I just can't seem to use magic._

Mr. Logan looked him over. "Are you sure? You look pale, Christopher."

Chris nodded. "Yeah, I'm definitely not sick. Thanks for the concern though."

"My cousins, Leonard and Irena, are retired doctors and there's several in their family, if it would help," Mr. Logan offered.

"Really, Mr. Logan," Chris insisted. He paused and instead of finishing he asked, "Do I look that bad?"

Mr. Logan nodded slowly. "Yes."

Chris chuckled. "Look, I'm going to head over to my parents house and my dad has medical training, so if he thinks something wrong, I'll be in good hands. Will that be satisfactory?"

Mr. Logan eyed him. "Just be careful."

A knock on the door startled them. Chris shrugged and headed toward the door, pulling it open without waiting to find out who was there. He stared with surprise at the face of Brianna standing there with her hand ready to knock. "What are you doing here?"

"After last night I . . ."

Chris covered her mouth with his hand. "Shh. My landlord's here."

"Then, why ask?" she asked giving him an odd look.

"I wasn't thinking," Chris admitted.

"Clearly," she agreed easily. "We need to talk."

"If this is about last night . . ." Chris began.

"The plumber is on his way," Mr. Logan announced from the hall behind them. "Make sure you talk to your dad."

"Sure, Mr. Logan," Chris agreed quickly. He watched as Mr. Logan left the apartment and started down the hall before he slumped against the wall and groaned. "I can't believe this."

"What was that about?" Brianna asked curiously as she entered the apartment.

"He was worried about me," Chris informed her as he closed the door behind her. "My powers don't appear to be working and I guess he noticed the panic on me."

"Oh." She looked at him for several seconds, before asking, "Not working? What happened?"

"I don't know," Chris admitted. "I've tested my powers and nothing seems to work."

"Have you cast any spells?" She asked as she went into the living room and sat down.

"No," he admitted as he followed her, "but I only figured this out a few minutes ago and my landlord was here. Any spell I could think of would have been noticed by my landlord."

She nodded absently. "That would have problematic, though I think he knows you're a witch."

Chris stared at her. "What? How could he know?"

She shrugged. "No idea. I'm an empath, not a telepath. If you want me to call . . . but never mind that. He's busy anyway. Not to mention he has problems. They all have problems."

"What?" Chris looked at her confused. "What on earth are you talking about?"

She waved her hand dismissively. "I know it's not what you want to hear, but I really don't want to talk about it. It's not why I'm here, anyway. I shouldn't have mentioned it, but I'm frustrated, so I apologize."

"I see," Chris replied, only partially getting what she was trying to say. "In that case, why _are_ you here?"

"I checked the isolation chamber," she announced.

Chris frowned as he looked at her, trying to figure out what she was talking about. Then, remember Seth's comments the night before he nodded for her to continue. When she didn't he attempted to prod her. "You checked the isolation chamber. What were you looking for? We already know the demons are there."

She shook her head. "Wrong. I checked it out and there is a demon in there and it is one of the demons from the restaurant. Problem is, there's only one."

"Why come to me?" Chris asked confused. "Why not go to your friends?"

"I told you they have problems to deal with," she reminded him.

"But what's the matter with them?" Chris pressed.

"Can we just say they are preoccupied and leave it at that?" Brianna requested.

"For now," Chris relented. "Did you find anything about the other two?"

"I'll get back to them," she assured him. "The demon in the isolation chamber is only there for a short time. The talk is that he got too close to a cursed gem and he's extremely suicidal as a result."

Chris felt a sick feeling in the bottom of his stomach. This sounded too much like the Aphrodite Crystal to him, which meant this demon had somehow been responsible for its arrival at the museum.

"If he can survive the next week or so," Brianna continued, taking note of the look on his face and temporarily ignoring it, "he'll be past the worst of it. Thing is, he'll never be past the depression and sometimes he'll get suicidal, again."

"Never?" Chris queried. Everett Lawson's writing had implied that there was some sort of cure. "No cure?"

"There's a cure," she admitted, "but it's almost impossible to get."

"Well, we have to find it," Chris informed her.

"Do you have any idea how difficult that is?" Brianna asked.

"My brother's infected," Chris sighed, "and at least two innocents."

Brianna gulped. "Oh."

"He nodded. "Yeah."

"Then, we'd better get started," she decided. "This isn't going to be easy."

* * *

I would like to comment on something regarding the powers of the Wyatt and Chris. Both brothers, you may have noticed, can orb, teleorb, and use telekinesis. There are other powers they have in common, but for the point of this, I'd like to point out that Leo demonstrated that whitelighters can use telekinesis, so that particular power could be from either side for the two brothers. In actual fact (for the purposes of this series, and yes, it actually matters, for this story at least) Wyatt get's his telekinesis from his whitelighter side. You have not seen his main witch power. I'm still trying to work out what powers we saw on the show (excluding any used by an evil version of Wyatt). It is a rather long list as I'm sure most of you know. Chris, on the other hand, gets his telekinesis from his witch side. To be honest, other than orbing (and I guess healing) I'm not sure how many powers whitelighters have in common . . . but I think they are supposed to have powers in common based off the earliest definitions.

At any rate the main point of that was to point out that Chris' telekinesis is from his witch side. Keep that in mind when he's in the dark cave. You'll know what I mean when we get there.

In the next chapter, Piper is still unaware of what is going on, but for once one of her boys is going to give her something . . . mostly something to worry about.


	14. Call For Help

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Both? Oh! Right. More on that soon, probably the next time you see Wyatt, but it's not on the page I am copying this from (because it is easier to copy and paste the already formatted version and that version has the chapter titles), so I'm not sure what chapter that is.

Piper has been having a nice day. That's about to change.

* * *

Chapter Fourteen – Call For Help

Piper Halliwell looked at the note on the kitchen table. Leo had, apparently, been in a hurry, when he left early that morning.

"Dear Piper,

"Kevin was in here this morning. He wanted me to help him with a little girl. Her mother was a single mother and she died in a car accident last night. She is now a whitelighter, but that means her daughter is without any parents. I've met her before. She in a second grade class with one of my students, so Kevin thought it might be helpful if I were to talk to her, maybe reacquainted her with my student.

"I don't know how much use I'll be, but I called Henry and asked him to go with me since he's with the police. Paige agreed to help if we run into trouble with social services.

"If all goes well, I should be back around noon, but I promised Hank I'd be over around two and I have a meeting with the college admissions office at four. I should be home from that by five. If you need me for anything, call me.

"I love you,

"Leo"

Piper put the note back on the table and headed toward the kitchen. She was stepping through the doorway when the phone rang. She shook her head and headed into the front hall and grabbed up the phone. "Halliwell."

"Mom, my powers are gone," Chris announced from the other side of the phone.

Piper inhaled sharply. "What did you say?"

"I said my powers are gone," he repeated, "and I really need them right now. Wyatt needs my help."

"What's wrong with your brother?"

"I'm on that," Chris informed her.

"Christopher Perry Halliwell, you do not tell me that something is wrong with your brother while you have no powers and then tell me nothing."

"I'm still learning the details, Mom," Chris admitted, "but I kind of have to go. Can you try and figure out what's wrong with my powers?"

"Not without you here," she informed him.

"Well, try," Chris requested. "I need to hunt down some ingredients for a potion Wyatt's going to need and I don't have time to wait."

"You do not just dump something like this on me," Piper repeated. "Get over here and . . ."

"And what?" Chris interrupted. "Wait around and do nothing. My brother is in danger and innocents are at stake. My information is extremely limited, but I know Wyatt will need this potion. Is there anything you can do without me? I mean if my powers have been stripped, I can't exactly get them back and if they've been bound, there's not a whole lot we can do until we find who bound them and how."

Piper closed her eyes. She didn't want to let him just go off on his own without his powers. It didn't matter that he hadn't had them for nearly two decades. There weren't demons chasing after him during those two decades. Now there were.

"Mom, I'll be all right," Chris tried to assure her. "I've got help, another witch. And I can fight. Aunt Phoebe taught me well."

"Phoebe," Piper mumbled sadly. "Why can't we find her?"

Having no answer for his mom, Chris didn't answer. "Can you look into this without me?"

"At least give me some idea where you are going or what is wrong with your brother," his mom insisted. "If one of my sons is in immediate danger, then I am not going to let the other one just go without some explanation, especially when he doesn't have any powers. Can you at least cast a spell?"

"No," Chris admitted. "I tried a couple and nothing worked."

Piper sighed. "Christopher."

"Call Seth," Chris suggested. "He's looking into it, too. He left me some papers, but I think he probably was on to something." There was a catch in his voice as he added. "My boss, at Centennial. He was cursed, is cursed, and I had no idea. He was trying to find a stone called The Aphrodite Crystal, because it was supposed to bless the person with some sort of powerful attraction to someone they were attracted to or something like that. Only some demon got their hands on it and they cursed it, made whoever got too near it paranoid and suicidal."

"Are you saying your brother is suicidal?" Piper practically yelled.

"Only if he's been infected," Chris informed her. "The last I knew, he hadn't been. However, his friend Nathan has been, or at least that's what I got out of the message Wy left and he destroyed Wy's phone, which is what I got out of the comments Emily passed on from her brother."

"Now you're having Emily pass on messages for you?" Piper asked, slightly annoyed now that the fear had lessened. "You have to be careful about that."

"Wyatt's the one who used her to pass on a message," Chris informed him. "And I have to go. If you need information call Seth. Please, Mom."

Piper sighed. "Be careful." There really wasn't much she could do. It didn't make her feel any better about it.

"I'll do my best," Chris assured her before he hung up.

Piper looked at the phone and considered what to do next. A smile crept across her lips as she dialed in an unfamiliar number, one that was quickly becoming familiar. "Hi, Andy," she said to the man who answered the phone. "Is Prue home?"

* * *

Now that she's got Prue back, who else would she call but her best friend? Answer to that non retorical question to come in chapter seventeen.

Leo's got a busy day in front of him. That letter gives you a look into what he spends his days doing. There will be more info on that later, but it will be kind of less than obvious.

In the next chapter entitled only "Addison", you get to know the reason behind Addison's decision to come to work at The Manor as well as find out what the next step in her plan is, kind of. You also get to see how her second meeting with Cobber went. She can be very mean.


	15. Addison

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - They love each other and each sees the weaknesses in the other while ignoring their own. At the same time they both envy the other their strengths while not always seeing their own.

Veradjna - Thank you and welcome to my series. It's always nice to see new people enjoying my writing.

From time to time a chapter is just so much of one character. In "Morality Bites 2" there was a chapter like that about Hank. In "Anti-Orb Zone" there was one about Cilly. This one is about Addison. She has a plan and she is not going to be swayed by logic.

* * *

Chapter Fifteen – Addison

Her white Mercedes Benz would have stuck out, so Addison Rooks had decided to walk. It was a decision she had long since come to regret, but there was no changing it now.

Besides she was committed to this. After making the decision to go along with the demon rather than tattle or vanquish him then and there, there had been no question of the actions that would follow. She had waited until the demon, Cobber she had later learned, had approached her, again.

* * *

_"That was a very good job you did there," a voice behind her announced. "My employer is quite pleased."_

So I was right_, she thought with a scowl._ Someone else is involved in this. _She recognized the voice behind her. It wasn't one she wanted to hear, but he had just provided her with all the information she needed to seal his doom. By the time she turned around there was a sickly sweet smile on her face. "I do not mess around. What did you think was going to happen?"_

_"I thought you were going to back out and not do it," he admitted._

_"I always do what I say I am going to do," she informed him with a sniff of disdain._

_"An admirable trait in a witch, I'm sure," he gaffed, "but hardly in a warlock."_

_"But I am not a warlock, now am I?" she posed the question to him as she fingered the potion in the pocket of her sweater._

_"But you . . ." Cobber looked at her confused._

_"I told you I'm not interested in your war," she reminded him. "Keep threatening my sister and I will get interested fast."_

_"You don't call the shots here," he informed her._

_"Oh, yes, I do," she replied back, her voice flat as she withdrew the potion from her pocket and smashed it into him. She watched in silence as he burst into flames and vanished, leaving behind only burned cement. "No one threatens my sister and gets away with it."_

* * *

An hour later she was headed down the sidewalk toward her destination. If she hadn't been at The Manor that night, she might have chosen a different destination for this trip, but she had been there that night and she knew what she heard.

* * *

_"Can you believe the nerve of that girl?" Amanda Winslow asked her friends as she glared across the dining room of The Manor at another patron. "She thinks my boyfriend is just up for grabs. I could just choke her."_

_"I think you'd better keep those homicidal tendencies to a minimum," Kimberley Alton advised, "and let Jonah handle her. He's not interested, so don't worry."_

_"But you heard her," Amanda protested. "She said . . ."_

_"We all heard her," Kimberley agreed. "Thing is I know for a fact the only time Jonah's ever kissed her was in third grade as a dare. He's not interested, Manda."_

_"You have to admit it is rather odd that she should begin claiming all this now," Addison commented._

_Amanda and Kimberley looked at her confused. "Whatever do you mean, Addy?" Amanda asked._

_Addison shook her head. "I cannot tell you what it is that I heard, but I certainly heard something less than flattering about Rebekah Simmons. She definitely is not interested in your boyfriend, Manda. At least she is not interested in stealing him from you. Perhaps she is interested in borrowing him from you, and I doubt she would be adverse to kissing him, but Kim is right. Jonah is only interested in you, so do not worry about it."_

_Amanda looked at the bottom of her empty glass. "Where is that waitress? I want a refill. She is not getting a good tip from me."_

_Addison glanced around and found their waitress, a leggy blonde whose name she couldn't recall, on the phone. She looked at her amused and focused her attention on her. She was about to unclip a piece of clothing when the girl's words reached her ears._

_". . . bright light moving thing, though."_

_Addison froze, all her attention suddenly on the blonde waitress. _Did she just say that? Is she talking about orbing? Who is that girl?

_"You think I can say that with a dining room full of people?" the waitress asked in words so soft that Addison almost missed it. "What if one of them knew what that meant?"_

Well, one of us does know what that means_, Addison thought, eying the waitress with surprised curiosity._

_"I do," the waitress agreed to whatever was said on the phone. "They are looking at me, kind of annoyed right now, too."_

_Addison almost jumped in surprise. _She is talking about us.

_"I figure that this message is important, so why don't you tell me what to tell Chris?"_

Chris? Is that the son of the owner?_ Addison's full attention was on the waitress. There was something interesting going on._

_"Do I tell him why?" the waitress asked, sounding curious._

I could not care less if you tell him,_ Addison silently pleaded. _Tell me. What is going on?

_"All right," the waitress agreed. "I don't think I'm going to get much of a tip on that table, but they'll just have to wait."_

_Addison looked at her friends. Both Amanda and Kimberley were looking at her expectedly. Apparently she'd missed something. She shook her head and looked back at the waitress._

_"Will do," the girl agreed, again. "I hope you save them, Mrs. Halliwell."_

So she is talking to her boss. What does Mrs. Piper Halliwell know about magic? I think it is time I had a chat with Dad.

_The waitress said only two more words before she hung up the phone. "Your innocents."_

_Watching her hang up the phone, Addison considered what she had just heard. She turned to her friends as the waitress headed into the kitchen. "Do not worry about the tip," she directed her friends. "I have got it covered."_

_What her friends thought she meant she neither knew nor cared. She simply made sure her tip made it into the waitress, one Emily Colson's jacket with a note._

_She went home contemplating what it would take to get a job at this restaurant where magical things happened. She intended to have a lot of fun._

_She didn't see the stunned look on Emily's face later when it fell out of her jacket later as she got into her parents' car and Emily found out what was within. The note had been only to assure her that this was no accident. She couldn't very well leave the tip on the table. After all, one didn't simply leave a hundred dollar bill lying around._

* * *

Now, Addison stood in front of Emily Colson's door with a small package. She put the package on the doorstep and rang the doorbell. Then, she ran as fast as she could. Hopefully everything would do as she wanted.

* * *

Inside Emily heard the doorbell ring and got up from her chair in front of the desk. No one else was home, so she didn't bother letting anyone know she was getting the door as she normally would.

She opened the door and saw no one. She frowned and looked around. She was about to give up when she noticed the package at her feet.

Curious she stopped down and picked it up. A label had been pasted on it that said, "To: Piper Halliwell. IMPORTANT." Probably as an afterthought there was a handwritten note that read, "Fragile. Do not drop!"

Emily frowned as she held it. Why would someone bring something here that was meant for her boss?

* * *

Apparently fanfiction doesn't like proboards. I will try to remember that. It took me over an hour to convince the chapter to copy right and only once I had copied it straight from my original draft.

There are two flashbacks in this chapter. The first is new. The second is a scene from "The Power of Influence" put into Addison's point of view.

What do you think Addison is up to?

The next chapter is called "The First Ingredient". Chris is having some surprising reactions to something going on in the chapter.


	16. The First Ingredient

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - No, you don't know who Addison's dad is. All you know at present is that he is a witch who has heard of Piper both for her magical skills and her culinary ones. He has a minimum of two children, both daughters. He is well to do (seeing as his daughter drives a Mercedes Benz and she went to culinary school in Paris). That might be all you know. A couple things I'm pretty sure I haven't mentioned that I don't mind sharing. The family whitelighter is named Sonya. She has asked that Addison be reasigned to a different whitelighter. Addison is thrilled about the part that has Sonya not being her whitelighter, but not the potential of another whitelighter "dullard" (her thoughts on the subject). Mrs. Rooks is _not_ a witch or in anyway magical. She does know that her husband and children are. Addison attended private school. Arielle attends public school . . . by choice. Neither sister has ever held a job before, with the exception of a couple of baby sitting jobs in Arielle's part. Addison does not play well by other people's rules (though that probably comes as no surprise), but she is willing to try at The Manor, because she wants to stay there.

When Chris agreed to help Brianna find the ingredients for the potion his brother needs, he didn't count on this.

* * *

Chapter Sixteen – The First Ingredient

Brianna reached up and grabbed a small leafy plant from the crag. She turned around and handed it to Chris. "Are you still woozy?"

Chris glared at her.

"It's not my fault that you can't deal with being blinked somewhere," Brianna retorted. She looked at him for several more seconds and started laughing.

Chris glared even harder. "What's so funny?"

She shook her head smiling. "Oh, nothing. I was just thinking of one of Toby's more bizarre contests."

"Contests?" Chris asked, finally accepting the plant. "What do you mean?"

She shrugged. "Well, in the particular case magical transportation."

Chris groaned. "Any chance we can walk to the next ingredient?"

"Unlikely," she informed him. "It's usually found in Ireland. Good luck walking there."

"My stomach's only just quit turning," he protested.

"Not much I can do about that," she admitted. "Pity you can't get there under your own powers."

"In case you forgot, my powers are gone."

"Can't you do anything without magic?"

"I can walk," he informed her, sarcastically, "and I know some self defense."

"Wow," she returned, equally sarcastic. "You really raised the bar high. Stripping someone's powers . . ."

"Is that what you think happened?" he asked as he started climbing down.

"I don't know," she admitted with a small shrug as she followed behind him. "I wasn't there. What do you think?"

"I don't know," he echoed. "Yesterday I had powers. Today I don't."

She sighed. "That's tough, but whoever or whatever did this to you, left you alive, so there's always hope."

He chuckled. "You are an optimist, aren't you?"

"You've met my friends," she reminded him. "Someone needs to balance CT and Max and it sure won't be Toby. And Aka doesn't need optimism. She sees everything and everyone as they are. It's a very black and white world . . . well, not really with all the colors she sees, but everything is very clear as to if it's good or evil and pretty much everything else."

"That doesn't mean she doesn't need optimism," Chris retorted. "After all, she doesn't see everything. And she doesn't know the future."

Brianna shrugged. "I think she's too busy figuring everything out that's right in front of her to think about the future."

He inclined his head. "Fair enough, I suppose. So what's this contest you were talking about?"

She laughed at that. "Well, all of us have some form of magical transportation, but only Aka and Toby could use theirs during the time without witchy magic."

"Witchy magic?" Chris laughed.

She shrugged. "What else can you call it?" she asked. "I mean magic didn't stop. Only certain magic stopped. Toby could dark orb, but he sure couldn't create the acid so associated with his demonic mother's kind. That was kind of amusing actually, last January when he woke up screaming because his mouth was burning."

Chris looked at her concerned. "You mean, his powers were harming him."

"He'd never really had them," she informed him. "When he was little all he had was magical transportation. He was too small to have anything else, for that very reason. They genetically are formed to wait to get those types of powers, because if they can't control them, it will kill them. We'd had a long night and it's hard to get back to their home, so while Max went home, the other three spent the night at my place. What a way to learn that magic was back, let me tell you. How'd you learn?"

"I closed the Book of Shadows with my telekinesis trying to stop my brother from wasting his time trying to cure me as the me from another time line joined the me from this one and brought along mortal wounds."

Brianna winced. "Ouch. You look fine though, so I guess he wasn't wasting his time."

Chris grinned. "Yeah, turns out I called that one wrong. Let's get going. I think I can handle more of your blinking."

She shook her head with a smile. "I just don't get it. Why is it that you and CT can't handle blinking? It's a witch power and you two are witches."

"Don't know," he scowled, again. "Can we just get this over with?"

"On it," she informed him as she wrapped her arms around him and blinked. Just like that, they were gone.

* * *

Toby's "bizarre" contest is not explained in this chapter. The conversation got sidetract. An example of it can be seen in chapter eighteen of "When Two Wrongs Make a Right". Brianna comments on the fact that CT called Toby not Max. He says that apparently he is only a step up from her and Aka declares that this means she beats them both out, but the fact remains that CT didn't call Aka. He called Toby, so Toby "wins".

The next chapter is called "Sisters". You get to see perhaps the second clues into the events of my "Imaginary Fiends (and Real Friends)". The first "clues" are anything to do with Phoebe and Coop. This has to do with a demon and a list. You also get to see how Prue's relationship with one of her sisters has progressed over the past couple of months.


	17. Sisters

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - Well done. In addition Prue and Piper might be from alternate realities, but they had over two decades of memories between them, where as Prue and Paige . . . don't.

mandraco - Welcome back. I'm glad to hear from you, even if it has been a while. It's always nice to hear from people who have been reading my series a while. I'd live to hear from more familiar names. Sorry that you are so confused, but glad you still want to know what happens next. If you would like to ask any specific questions, feel free to PM me and I will try to give you a quick refresher course on whichever characters you ask about. For this set of stories ("When Two Wrongs Make a Right", "My Curse on You ~ Part One", and "My Curse on You ~ Part Two") the characters mentioned thus far that you need to know are (excluding Halliwells): Emily, Addison, Arielle, Brianna, Max, Toby, CT, Aka, Andrew, and Nathan. Well, and Emily's brother, Nate and Matt (but Matt plays only a very small part). There are also the four men in the internet search Peter did (so add Peter and Seth): Nick, Ev, Reggie, and Jarod. Hmm. Yes, I see why you are confused. I apologize. Hopefully by the end of the story it will all make sense, but in the mean time, feel free to ask questions.

Sisters are such an interesting thing. Sometimes you love each other. Sometimes you feel like threatening to murder them in their sleep. I've never (to my memory) threaten to kill my sisters. Maim, yes. Pull hair, break their toys, shake until they said something, pinch, and other creatively juvenile things. I never quit loving them, though and I hope they can say the same. In this chapter you get to see two sets of sisters interacting. Sorry, no threats.

* * *

Chapter Seventeen – Sisters

Vicki Trudeau pulled an encyclopedia off the bookcase and started flipping through it. She stopped on one entry and brought it over to her sister, Pat. "Think Mom will take us with her?"

Pat shook her head. "We really aren't much use, you know. As happy as I am that you have your power back, whatever it is . . ."

"I've been looking into that," Vicki interrupted her. "According to the book I read, I might be some sort of dreamwalker, though the fact that I can apparently see all this while I'm awake, too seems to go counter to that idea. Clearly I can see both alternate dimensions and time lines, since I saw the twins before we ever got here and . . ."

"Yeah, you helped save those kids," Pat interrupted this time. "It's not that I'm not glad you did, and it's not that I'm not glad we didn't lose you. I am glad you helped with those kids. And I am glad that you came out of the whole thing unharmed. It's just you bring it up at every possible opportunity and it gets old. Something like that shouldn't be treated like that. It . . ." she shrugged and hugged her sister from behind. "Look, Vicki, I don't ever want to lose you, but sometimes you could talk less."

White orbs circled around the room and formed into their aunt, Paige Matthews-Mitchell.

Pat grinned over her sister's shoulder at her. "And I really wish I could still do that."

"Hi, girls," Paige greeted with a smile. "Do you know where your mom is?"

Vicki nodded, silently.

"I'll go get her," Pat offered as she left the room.

Paige looked at her remaining niece. It seemed kind of odd to think of this girl she had met only two months previously as her niece. "Hi, Vicki."

"Hi, Aunt Paige." It was easy for Vicki to see the relationship. She'd known it her entire life.

"How do you like it here?" Paige asked, trying to get her to talk.

Vicki shrugged. "It's not really what I'm used to. And may know the landscape, but I don't know the people. I kind of wish we'd moved to San Francisco, but people will freak out when they see Dad and Mom."

Paige smiled at that. "Yeah, well they'll have to get used to that eventually. No one's trying to keep you a secret."

"You're wrong about that," Vicki informed her. "We still haven't met Dad's parents or Aunt Sarah. It's not that we knew them in the other time line. They were dead, so we have no history to get in the way. The problem is that apparently in over two decades Uncle Ben never told his parents or his sister that his wife was a witch and so they know nothing of magic."

Paige chuckled. "Yeah, that's not an easy conversation to have. It took me years to tell my Aunt and Uncle. And sometimes it just seemed easier to not mention it, but when I faked my death and my aunt and uncle didn't come to my funeral, it hit something in me. It still took a while, but eventually I talk to them, told them what was going on in my life and all about finding out I was a witch. They came to Henry and my wedding. And they were there for the twins' christening and for Hanks, too. I'm glad I told them."

"I don't think it would be that easy for us," Vicki admitted.

"My case was a little different," Paige admitted. "I faked my death, not actually died. I was only gone for a few weeks, not decades. And they'd always known there was something different about me. They didn't know it was that different, but they always knew there was something."

"You got here faster than I thought," Prue Halliwell-Trudeau announced as she entered the room.

Pat stood behind her.

"I orbed here," Paige commented, amused. "How long did you think it was going to take me?"

Prue shrugged. "You said you need to get something before you came."

Paige nodded. "And I did. You ready to go?"

Prue nodded. She looked at her daughters. "Tell, your dad that I left with Paige."

"Can we come with you, Mom?" Vicki asked.

Prue shook her head. "You have a lot of homework and no experience. There is no evidence of alternate planes, so your powers are not needed, either."

"But how do I get experience if I can't come?" Vicki protested.

"Sweetheart, you're thirteen," Prue reminded her younger daughter. "Enjoy it while it lasts." She placed a kiss on Vicki's forehead. "I'll call if I'm going to be late. "Be good for your dad."

"Ah, mom," Vicki complained, ducking away. "I'm not a little kid. I'll be fine."

Pat giggled. "Mom, we'll see you when we get back. I know you're trying to help Aunt Piper's boys, but have fun with your sisters."

Prue smiled and planted a kiss on her older daughter's forehead as well. "Be good."

Pat nodded. "We will. Don't worry, Mom."

"Come on, Prue," Paige urged.

Prue walked over to Paige and let her hug her as Paige orbed them out.

As soon as they were gone, Vicki went back to her book. She didn't see Pat go over to the bookcase and pulled out some books.

Pat pulled out a small stack of papers and took them over to a small desk. In small careful writing she continued a sentence she had written. At the top of the page were the words "Missing People". This was followed by a short list of names. "Karma. Mehgan. Trace." Under the names were the words "Time of day?" Pat looked at the paper frustrated and closed her eyes. After a moment she added a date. February 2, 2000. She sighed and looked at the paper frustrated. _There was more. I know there was more._

* * *

For those of you who have read my "Imaginary Fiends (and Real Friends)", does the names in the last paragraph mean anything to you? They were all mentioned in the story. Out of the three the name Karma was mentioned the most.

So what do you think of the interplay between the two sets of sisters. Pat and Vicki are well used to each other, having grown up together (and are still growing up together). Prue and Paige have so much catching up to do.

Want to see what's in the box Addison left on Emily's doorstep? Emily's about to get an introduction to two of her boss' sisters in "What's in the Box".


	18. What's in the Box

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Yes, you have a morbid imagination. Of course sometimes I do to. In this case, no, no head.

Prue and Paige arrive at the manor to help Piper, but Emily's arrival puts a new spin on things. You get to find out what is in the box that Addison left on Emily's doorstep. Any idea what might be in there?

* * *

Chapter Eighteen – What's in the Box

Piper turned around at the sound of orbing. She grinned at the sight of Prue and Paige. "It's good to have you here."

"Is Chris all right?" Paige asked concerned.

"Chris' is fine other than his powers being gone," Piper informed her. "It's Wyatt I'm worried about. Unfortunately Chris seems to think he can handle it and won't give me much information."

"I don't like this," Paige announced, "not going after the demon behind this. We may not be able to cast a power of three spell, but we're still Charmed Ones."

"Oh, we'll go after the demon," Piper informed her. "But first we need to at least see if we can figure out what's up with Chris' powers."

"Kind of hard without Chris here," Prue retorted.

"Well, we aren't going to get him here," Piper lamented, "so let's see what we can find out."

The sound of the doorbell had all three of them turning toward the front door.

"Paige, would you get that?" Piper requested.

"Sure," Paige agreed as she headed into the front hall. She opened the door and saw Emily standing there with a box. "May I help you?"

"I need to speak with Mrs. Halliwell," Emily announced.

Paige glanced back at her two sisters in the other room. "She's kind of busy right now. Maybe I can help?"

Emily considered this. One question popped to the top. "Who are you?" She had a vague memory that she'd seen her before, probably as The Manor, but she wasn't sure.

Paige stared at her. "_You_ come to _my_ sister's place and _you_ ask who _I_ am?"

With those words Emily relaxed. "Oh, then you know about . . . white . . ."

Paige pulled her in before she could finished the word.

". . . Lighter," Emily finished surprised as the door was closed behind her.

"Careful where you say stuff like that?" Paige cautioned her.

"How is putting a door between us and the outside going to affect anything?" Emily wanted to know.

Paige glared at her. "You never know who might be listening and you never know who might be watching. Who are you?"

"Emily," came the quick reply. "I work for Mrs. Halliwell at The Manor. She held out the package still in her hands. "Someone left this on my doorstep."

Paige took the package from her. "Paige Matthews-Mitchell, Piper's sister. Thank you for delivering this." She reopened the door.

"Have you heard anything from Wyatt?" Emily asked before she took a step.

Paige froze. "What do you know about that?"

"Nate called me," Emily informed her. Her eyes widened. "Did you not knowing anything about what's going on at the museum?"

"Not a whole lot," Paige announced through slightly gritted teeth. "Chris wants to handle this on his own."

"Oh." Emily was silent, unsure what to say.

Paige sighed and shut the door, again. "Come in and meet Prue." She lead the way back into the front room.

Emily followed her and looked at the unfamiliar woman next to her boss.

Paige put the package down on the coffee table. "Emily, you know Piper. This is Prue."

"Emily Colson," Emily informed her as she held out her hand to Prue. "You can call me Em."

Piper raised an eyebrow at that. "Prue, this is one of my employees. She's also the reason that Chris and Wyatt weren't able to join us a few weeks ago when we went to your place to try and come up with some way to find Phoebe and Coop."

"Phoebe," Emily mouthed. "That's your other sister, isn't it?"

Piper nodded. "Yeah, Phoebe's the baby of the family."

"Two years older than me," Paige added with a laugh.

Emily frowned and looked at them confused. "You lost me."

"Don't worry about it," Prue instructed. "Why did you bring her in, Paige? We're kind of busy here."

"Emily knows something about Wyatt, so I thought she might be able to help," Paige suggested.

"Well, I can call Nate," Emily offered, "but I don't know that I can do much more than that. Don't you want to see what's inside the package?"

Piper looked down at the package on the table. She frowned when she noticed her name on it. "This was delivered to you?"

Emily nodded. "Someone put it on my front porch and ran, I guess, because no one was there when I opened the door."

"Why deliver it to your house instead of here?" Piper wondered aloud.

"Open it and find out," Prue suggested picking it up and handing it to Piper.

"It says fragile," Piper warned grabbing it. "We should be careful with it." She placed the package back down on the table and sat down on the couch in front of it. "Back away in case it's bad."

"In that case, I'm opening it," Prue protested trying to pick it up.

Piper stopped her hand. "No. It has my name on it. You are not going to do anything to risk yourself."

"I'm a . . ." Prue looked at Emily.

"She knows," Piper assured her. "Chris used the truth spell on her."

Prue winced. "Yeah, that never goes well," she commented remembering using the spell on Andy to see how he took he being a witch.

Emily looked at her surprised.

"You find out things you don't want to know," Paige added, remembering using it on her own boyfriend only to learn he was married. That had ended fast.

"Really?" Emily looked at them both. "Cause I thought it was interesting. Though it's clear Chris has a lot of dark secrets."

The three sisters looked at each other, Prue with a little bit of confusion.

"I told you Chris did some time traveling and changed his future, right?" Piper asked Prue.

Prue shook her head. "Nope."

"Oh." Piper considered this. "Well, he did and back in January that Chris combined with my Chris, so my Chris has his memories as well. There's a lot we don't know about that time line, but we know it was bad."

Emily nodded. "That explains what he said about losing a lot of people to his brother."

"He said that," Piper stared at her amazed.

Emily nodded, again. "I don't think wanted to. It was the spell. We both said things that we didn't plan to. I told him, and the other three, things I hadn't planned to, stuff I really wasn't supposed to share, but I guess that's the price I pay for agreeing. He sounds kind of tortured about it all. So what's in the package?"

"Right." Piper pulled her attention away from what Emily was saying and looked down at the package. She opened the flap, surprised to find no tape holding it closed. She pulled it all the way opened and found a stopped up potion vial laying in a lot of tissue paper to keep it from moving. She picked it up and looked at the small amount of blue liquid inside.

"That does _not_ look good," Paige commented.

"No kidding." Piper took the tissues out and revealed a folded piece of paper at the bottom she lifted this out and unfolded it. She read the typed note aloud.

"Dear Mrs. Halliwell,

"I am sorry for the necessity of this, but it was the only way to protect someone I love. A demon approached me yesterday and threatened someone if I did not obey. Had I turned them down, they would have found someone else. I am sure you believe you could have dealt with it, but I am not so sure. And I am not willing to risk that.

"I have dealt with the demon, but I do not believe that he was working for himself. In fact he stated that he was working for someone and had reported back to them. Therefore anything following this should be seen as the extraordinary efforts of the Halliwell witches, the Charmed Ones. I do not believe there is a demon out there that truly would doubt that you are capable of bringing back the powers of someone.

"I did give Christopher the stripping potion, but I altered it in hopes that you could undo it. I am including a portion of the potion with this note in hopes that you will be able test it and find some way to use it to find some sort of antidote or cure. I have also included a copy of the spell I used to alter the potion. I am unsure about you, but I have seen stripping potions before. They were not blue. That might be important.

"This is not my war. I do not appreciate being forced into it and so I prefer to remain anonymous. I hope that you are able to use this to find a way to reverse the potions effects, but if you do not, I will not lose sleep over it."

Piper frowned and flipped over the paper. On the back she saw only the words of the spell in careful block print letters. _What was planned, shall not last. A chance not had in the past, shall be given the one who hast, the cunning to reverse this cast._ Piper looked up at her sisters and Emily. "That's it other than a spell on the other side. It doesn't give us a whole lot to work with, but it's a whole lot more than we had before." She turned her attention to Emily. "I know you want to help and I appreciate that. That's not what I need you to do, though. I need you to tell us everything you know about Wyatt's situation and then see if you can get an update of any sort by calling . . . Nate, was it?"

Emily nodded.

"After that, I need you to go home," Piper told her. "This is dangerous business and you shouldn't deal with it unless you have the ability to do so. You don't."

"I can learn," Emily offered. She looked at the three women around her and shook her head. "Clearly not today though. What do you want to know?"

* * *

Did you see that one coming? Do you think that the fact that the potion is blue means anything?

Chris is learning so many things about himself. In the next chapter "Let the Darkness Speak", Chris and Brianna are searching for one of the ingredients needed for the potion when Chris realizes something interesting.


	19. Let the Darkness Speak

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Agreed. They are smart.

Chris is not enjoying looking for the current ingredient, but while in the process he realizes something that stuns him a little.

* * *

Chapter Nineteen – Let the Darkness Speak

"Any idea how much farther we have to go?" Chris asked Brianna, trying to look around for her. Considering it was pitch black that was difficult, but he could sense her and that caused him to stop. "I can sense you."

"Good for you," Brianna retorted. "I can hear you. What's your point?" she asked as she felt along the wall in the dark.

"It's a power," Chris informed him. "If my powers have been stripped, why can I use it?"

Brianna stopped. "That's an interesting question. Why didn't you notice before?"

"I guess the darkness forced me to use it," Chris commented. "I kind of forgot I had it."

"Any other abilities you forgot you had?"

Chris thought about it and nodded. He chuckled as he realized there was no way she could see him. "Yes, actually there is, but there's no way for me to know if it works here."

"I guess most powers would be difficult to test here," she admitted. "What's the power?"

"Invisibility," he informed her dead pan.

She whipped around to stare in his general direction and burst out laughing. "Yeah, that would be kind of impossible to tell. Anything else?"

"I don't think so," he decided. "How much farther do you think we have?"

"Could be five feet or five miles," she admitted. "I have no way of knowing. There's no light at the end of this tunnel."

Chris snorted and went back to walking in silence.

"You're ignoring me, aren't you?" her voice asked from behind him.

"And why not?" he replied. "You have very poor jokes."

"It wasn't a joke," she protested.

"Are you sure we need this moss?"

"Of course I'm sure," she retorted. "It's not as if I like the idea of trudging through the dark for untold periods of time. I rather like sunlight, thank you very much."

"Some demon you make," he shot back.

"I'm not a demon," she threw back. "I am a witch who had a warlock mother. And since warlocks are merely an evil form of witch, don't call me a demon."

"I thought all of you were part demon."

"All but me," she informed him. "Max is part Snake demon, part something else. Toby's part Scabber demon. Aka's part Grimlock. CT's part . . . well, honestly, I'm not sure about him either. I think it's something rather more unique than the other three, though. I've never actually seen his natural demon power, so I don't know what it is."

"And how is it that he has unnatural demon powers?" Chris asked, bemused. "That's just kind of weird."

"I guess that's because he . . . I'm not really clear on that either, but something about the powers of another demon being put into him. That can happen through blood transfusions and power stealing athemés and the like."

Chris nodded. "I see. Well, not really, but I understand what you are saying."

Brianna smirked at that. "Yeah, I guess neither of us really sees any . . . Ouch!" she cried out as she smacked into a wall. "I think we found it," she informed him as she pulled out a plastic bag.

"Great," he replied with definite enthusiasm. "Now we just collect it and walk all the way back down this tunnel until you can get us out of here."

She pulled some moss off the wall and sealed it in the baggy. She handed the baggy to Chris. "Let's get going then. We have a long walk in front of us."

"Where to next?" Chris asked as he packed away the baggy.

"Somewhere less pleasant than this," she informed him before adding, "but at least we'll be able to see."

"Thank goodness for that," Chris commented, trying not to think what might be less pleasant than being completely unable to see.

* * *

What do you think? Why didn't the potion strip all his powers?

The title of the next chapter is enough make one worried I think. It's called "Suicidal Women, Locked Doors, and Sister's Calls". Things have continued to get worse at the museum.


	20. Suicidal Women, Locked Doors, and Sister

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - Actually, you're along the right lines. The potion's color is important, but it's been a while since the episode that gives you the clues you need. It's got a little extra kick involved.

mandraco - I don't know if you have before either, but thank you. I'm not really sure how to explain how I do that. I just kind of let him be the way he seems to be. Glad it's working. Here's some more for you to read. No Chris in this chapter, but Wyatt's here.

It's never a good thing when someone is pounding on your door demanding you come out.

* * *

Chapter Twenty – Suicidal Women, Locked Doors, and Sister's Calls

Nate back against the wall and breathed very slowly. He stared across the room at the door, trying to keep his heart from pounding in tune with the banging on the door. He could hear his cell phone ringing in his pocket and debated whether or not to answer it. Ultimately it stopped ringing before he could decided.

"I know you're in there!" the voice of a young woman yelled. "Come out now!"

He shook his head, but didn't say a word. She might think she knew he was in there, but the truth was, she probably didn't. If he didn't say anything hopefully she would decide that she was wrong. He was suddenly very thankful to Wyatt Halliwell for telling him to lock the door. He didn't know what was going on out there, but clearly there was something bad going on.

"Open that door!" yelled the voice in the hall. "The light's are flickering. I can see the blood, so much blood."

She sounded terrified, but there was no way Nate was opening that door. He didn't know who she was and he didn't know what she might do to him. It struck him as odd that he was afraid of a girl, but he supposed a girl could do just as much damage as any man might if she had the right tools, some even without tools. And this one sounded a little crazy.

"They said he made it," she mumbled, the banging on the door more rhythmic now, as if she was rocking back and forth against it rather than banging on it with her fists. "They said he made it. They said he made it. They said he made it." She wailed loudly, causing Nate to jump. "But I can see him. Why can I see him? So much blood. So much blood."

Another wail and Nate was covering his ears. He didn't know what was going on, but he didn't know how much more of this he could handle.

"Let me in," the woman begged. "The light's are flickering. There's a body on the floor. So much blood. I hate blood. Please, let me in. Please!"

Nate shook his head and looked over at the window. Two stories down. He wondered what his chances would be if he tried to climb down. He suspected they wouldn't be good so he backed away from the window with a sigh.

"I can't take this anymore," the woman moaned. "I have to get out of here."

He heard the pounding of footsteps as they got farther and farther away. He didn't want to think what she might be up to, or what she might do. He was just glad she was gone and hoped this nightmare would end soon. Nate sat down against the wall and took several deep breaths. This was way out of his league.

Several minutes passed before Nate felt safe getting away from the wall. He knew there was no way he could get back to work so he opened his cell phone and checked his missed calls. He smiled at the sight of his sister's name on the ID.

"How are you doing in there?" Wyatt asked from the other side of the door.

"Fine," Nate announced. "Or as fine as one can be with people banging on the door wanting in."

"You didn't let anyone in, did you?" Wyatt asked, concern in his voice.

"No."

Wyatt sighed. "Good." He paced a moment in front of the door before continuing. "I need you to do me a favor. And before you do anything else I need you to know I am infected."

Nate gulped. "So you definitely weren't earlier?"

"I definitely wasn't earlier," Wyatt agreed.

"And now that you are you want something from me?" Nate asked just to be clear.

"Yes," he agreed, "because now I know the seriousness of it and I know time is short."

"Now you know how serious it is?" Nate asked sarcastically. "Now that you are infected?"

Wyatt sighed. "I got infected while stopping one of my friends from killing himself."

Nate didn't respond at once. "I don't know of any disease that makes one suicidal. Besides, that girl in the hallway didn't seem suicidal. All that screaming and yelling and banging on the door, she seemed more homicidal."

Wyatt glanced down at where the unconscious Olivia Tunnels lay. "That girl in the hallway almost didn't survive. For someone who hated blood she'd found a pretty bloody way to attempt to off herself."

Nate gulped. "She tried to kill himself?" he questioned. "I knew she was crazy."

"Not crazy," Wyatt corrected through the door. "Scared, paranoid, depressed, but fully sane. Now about that favor. Will you listen?"

Thinking of what he had gone through as the girl had banged on his door and all the thoughts that had gone through his head, he knew that he needed to trust this man. "I'll listen."

"I need to talk to someone on the outside and it might help us to get out of here."

"I don't see how."

"You don't need to," Wyatt informed him. "You just have to do as I ask, no questions asked."

"What do you need from me?" Nate asked, look out the window, wondering, again what his chances were.

"I need to borrow your cell phone," Wyatt informed him. "The thing is, I don't know if I can give it back."

"Well, why wouldn't you be able to give it back?" Nate wanted to know.

"Maybe when this is all over," Wyatt offered, "if Nathan doesn't break it, too. I'll buy you another if I need to."

Nate looked down at his phone and his sister's number listed there. "My sister just tried to call me," he announced, not sure where he was going with it, "but she was trying to contract you wasn't she?"

Wyatt raised his eyebrows in surprised. "I don't know. I really don't know Emily all that well."

"All the same, I think she was trying to call you," Nate informed him. "Call her. Find out why she called."

"I will," Wyatt assured him. "I _am_ infected," he reminded Nate, "and I don't know the cure or even if there is one, so slip the phone out the door, close the door, and relock it before getting away from the door. Tell me when you are away from it."

"How contagious is this thing?" Nate wanted to know.

"I don't know," Wyatt admitted. "I know it transmits by touch, because that's how Nathan got infected and how he infected Andrew and me."

"And the girl?"

Wyatt shook his head, despite the fact that Nate couldn't see him. "I don't know. My guess is that she came in contact with one of them while I was talking to you, but I don't know."

"If these people are suicidal and you're infected too . . ."

Wyatt bit his lip. "I haven't gotten there yet. I know what they are feeling. I know they're scared. I know a lot of things about what's going on with them. What I don't know is how bad, because I'm not there? I don't want to be there. I want to get past it. I want to find a way to solve this before it gets to that point. And to do that, I think I need to talk to some people on the outside."

Nate sighed. "Step away from the door. I'm bringing the phone out."

"Done."

Nate walked over to the door slowly. He unlocked it and pulled open the door. He was Wyatt knelt down next to a blond girl who lay unconscious on the floor. Despite what Wyatt had said about her choosing a bloody way to off herself, he saw no evidence of blood. He pushed back the thought and placed his phone on the floor. He straightened and closed the door, locking it once again. He walked back to the window before he said anything. "You think there's a way to get us out of here alive. Do it."

Outside the door Wyatt picked up the phone and pushed it into his pocket. He scooped up the unconscious Olivia and head down the hall. Considering how far gone she was, he couldn't leave her alone and there was no way he was letting Nate Colson in on his conversation. Chris might trust Nate's little sister, and maybe Wyatt was beginning to trust her, too, but Nate wasn't his sister and Wyatt knew nothing about him. He reached one of the offices down the hall and lay Olivia down on the carpet. Then, he pulled out the cell and found the last number dialed. He hit call and waited.

"Nate, I was getting worried," Emily announced over the phone. "What took you so long?"

"I'm not Nate," Wyatt informed her.

"No, you're not," Emily agreed, concern in her voice. "Who is this and why do you have my brother's cell?"

"You're brother is fine," Wyatt assured her. "He agreed to let me borrow his phone, so I can talk to people outside of here."

"Who is this though?"

"I'm hurt that you don't know my voice," he teased, "but then I guess that proves what I told you're brother, we don't really know each other all that well. This is Wyatt Halliwell."

* * *

Emily would not be happy if she knew what was going on with her brother, but she would be glad he was alive and uninfected. Do you think Nate did the right thing (for Nate, not for everyone else), by lending Wyatt his phone?

I think the title of the next chapter is the shortest title I have ever used. It's called "Mud". It's back to Chris and Brianna on their quest to find the ingredients they need. This is the place Brianna said was worse than the dark. I had fun with this one.


	21. Mud

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - I am so glad you enjoyed it and I am very glad that you like Emily.

This was a lot of fun. I like writing action scenes. Chris without most of his powers and Brianna with only passive powers makes it only more fun to write.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-One – Mud

Demons surrounded them on all sides. It would be difficult for two witches to handle under normal circumstances. When one of them was mostly magicless, it became a whole lot harder.

It was a well known fact that being without magic didn't mean powerless. Chris ducked down as acidic substances sailed over his head. "I don't think they like us."

"You think," Brianna retorted as she kicked out her leg and tripped a slimy demon that was advancing on her. "An active power would be nice right now."

"Yeah, that would," Chris retorted as he slammed his fist into another demon. "How are you with spells?"

She grabbed a tree branch out of the mud and swung it around her, knocking several demons down. "Passable."

"And you're the best among your friends?"

"Not hard when CT's the only other witch," she retorted as she whapped a demon that was charging Chris over the head with her branch.

"Thanks," he chuckled as kneed a demon in the groin and ducked the punch of another.

"Spell huh," she commented. "Close your eyes."

"That doesn't seem smart," Chris commented as he caught motion on the edge of his vision and kicked the demon down into the mud.

"Use your sensing," she suggested. "It should be able to tell you where everyone is and how to avoid them."

"Like your empathy does," he shot back as he ducked from an energy ball.

"Totally different power," she informed him. "Fine, just make sure you close them before I finish the spell."

Chris ducks under another demons attack, grabs up a sharp stick, and stabs it into the demon. He grinned as he watched the demon explode even as he got covered in demon gut. "One demon, five to go."

"Which still isn't an easy feat," she reminded him as she swung her branch at the demons knocking one of them down. "Bright as light off the snow, make this fighting ground glow. Blind the eyes of those who look . . ."

Chris ducked down as another fireball whizzed over him, right where his head had been a moment before. He closed his eyes and forced his attention on his sensing power.

Brianna leaned away from an incoming stream of acid before continuing her spell. "So their vision I will have," she chanted closing her eyes before finishing, "took."

All around them a blinding white light filled the vision of the five remaining demons, blinding them. Several seconds passed before Brianna opened her eyes. The light had abated and the demons where in a state of confusion. Brianna watched, a little surprised, as one of the demons hit another with acidic spit and the second demon burst into nothing. "Two down, four to go," she announced followed with, "you can open your eyes now."

"Correction," Chris turned to face her, pulling a branch out of a demon as he did so. "Three down, three to go." He opened his eyes but didn't bother looking behind him as the demon exploded into globs of goo that covered them in muck.

The three remaining demons didn't bother fighting anymore. They shimmered out and left the two witches alone.

Brianna grinned and dug into the dirt. She pulled up a muddy sphere. She wiped it off with her sleeve and looked at the see through globe in her hand. She handed it to Chris.

He stuck the orb in his pack, no longer bothering to ask why they needed such odd ingredients. If they did they did. He wiped some mud off his face and looked at her. "Are you all right?"

Brianna nodded as she combed mud out of her hair with her fingers. She spit some out of her mouth and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." Belying her statement she limped a few steps. She gave him a shrug. "I've had worse."

Chris shook his head with a smile. "Tough girl, huh?"

"You got it," she agreed before sighing. "Well, so much for the easy part."

"The easy part?" Chris asked in disbelief. "How was that the easy part?"

"Yeah," Brianna confirmed. "Now, we have to find a unicorn."

Chris stared at her for several seconds and burst out laughing.

Brianna glared at him. "It's not funny. You ever try hunting a unicorn?"

"No," he denied. "I wouldn't bother. Come with me and I'll introduce you to my brother's pet unicorn."

This time Brianna stared at him in disbelief. "You have a pet unicorn?"

He shook his head. "No, my brother does."

"How does one keep a unicorn as a pet?" she asked, trying to comprehend this.

"By making everyone think it is a white horse," he informed her.

"And how does one keep people who know from stealing horn dust?" she pressed. "Or even the whole unicorn?"

He chuckled at that. "You'll see. Are you going to take us there, or not?"

She nodded. "Oh, yeah, I'm coming." Her eyes glow eagerly as she adds, "I can't believe I'm going to see a unicorn."

Chris laughed at this. "Well, you're going to have to get us there, because we both know I can't." He looked at the items collected in his pack. "Is this everything else we need?"

She nodded. "That's everything else."

* * *

Chris and Brianna don't agree on what the hard part is. Anyone wondering how Wyatt has a pet unicorn seeing as we only say a unicorn in one episode?

Piper is finally going to get some information on what is going on with her older son in the next chapter titled "Up To Date".


	22. Up To Date

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Yep, he has a pet Unicorn.

Wyatt is starting to get worse. The curse effects witches (and other magical beings) at a different rate. In Wyatt's case it's affecting him slower, but now that it's starting to take affect, he is getting worse fast.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Two – Up To Date

"Wyatt, hi!"

Up until that point, Piper had only paid a negligible amount of attention to Emily's phone conversation. Piper turned to look at Emily, startled. "Wyatt's on the phone?"

Emily looked over and nodded. "Just a moment, Wyatt. You should probably talk to your mom. She's got your aunts here trying to look into what's going on."

"If you were going to end up helping a member of my family, I would have thought it would have been Chris," Wyatt commented on the other end of the phone.

"I called Chris," she admitted, "to pass on your message. And then I was given reason to come here. Just talk to your mom, okay."

"Sure, no problem," Wyatt agreed easily. "If all she knows is what I told your brother, she's probably pretty worried."

"I think it's the fact that she knows more than that which has her more worried," she corrected him. "Here's your mom," she informed him before handing the phone to Piper.

"Wyatt, what is going on?" Piper asked the second she got the phone to her ear.

"An artifact arrived in the museum," he informed her, realizing she wasn't interested in pleasantries, "and my friend, Nathan, unpacked it. It enveloped him in a green glow and he said he felt evil. I wasn't really comfortable with it, but I made the mistake of letting him convince me to keep working. Then, Andrew showed up to deliver a message. When he did he helped Nathan with something and came in contact with him. The same thing happened to him that happened to Nathan. He was covered in a green glow. At that point I tried to call Chris, but Nathan freaked out and broke my phone, so I used the excuse Andrew had given me to get out into the hallway and try and orb home. Only I couldn't orb out."

"What did you say?" Piper exclaimed at almost a yell. "First your brother, now you."

"What happened to Chris?" Wyatt asked concerned as he absorbed the words. "Are you saying he can't orb, again, either. This is nuts. I don't remember coming in contact with any strange gels."

"It's not just his orbing," Piper informed him. "Chris has no powers. Do you?"

Wyatt frowned. His telekinesis hadn't exactly failed. It acted more like it was deflected considering he was pretty sure a door couldn't throw him across the floor. He looked around the room he was in, Kate Leigh's office. On her desk he spotted a paperweight. He focused on it and waved his hand at the desk ever so slightly.

The paperweight moved.

He held out his hand and blinked at the same paperweight. Blue white orbs surrounded it and it appeared in his hand. He gulped.

"Wyatt, are you still there?"

"Yeah, Mom," he agreed absently. "I'm just testing a few things."

"What's going on, Wyatt?" Piper asked, concerned.

"I'm going to put down the phone," he told her, "just for a moment." He didn't wait for a response before doing just that. He put down the phone and closed his eyes. He focused his attention across the room instead of across the city and blue white orbs surrounded him, orbing him across the room.

Confused, Wyatt walked over to the window. He looked down and focused on the ground three stories down. He closed his eyes and focused on the ground below. Blue white orbs surrounded him and dispersed without anything else happening.

After another attempt he sighed and grabbed back up the phone. "Mom, still there?"

"I'm here," Piper informed him. "What were you doing?"

"My powers aren't gone," he announced. "I just can't use them to affect the outside." Wyatt looked across the room at Olivia, wondering how long he could keep her out before he needed to deal with her suicidal tendencies.

"Have you tried leaving?"

"Yes, mom," he informed her. "Now, what's this about Chris having lost his powers."

Piper sighed. "Looks like someone gave him a stripping potion. Odd thing is whoever they are seems to want to try and make amends. They sent me a package with a portion of the potion they used, a spell they cast on the potion, and an explanation of what they claim happened. We're looking into it."

"Okay, you keep on that," Wyatt suggested. "I'm going to call Chris, see if he has found anything useful. Ask Emily for her brother's cell number. He agreed to let me borrow it." Wyatt paused a moment before adding, "If something happens to me and this all goes bad, I love you, Mom."

"This isn't going to go bad," Piper announced. No other option was acceptable. "You are going to get out of there safe and sound."

"Not if I can't leave soon," Wyatt told her softly. "I tied up two coworkers in one of the storerooms because one of them tried to hang himself and I don't trust the other one to remain in control enough to stop himself if he gets to that point. I have another coworker who slit her own wrists trying to avoid unseen evils. I have an accountant who is by my order locked up in an office, so far not infected, and at least one other coworker whom I haven't located yet. I have no idea if she's been infected or not. And mom, I am infected. It is horrific. I cannot describe how badly I want to avoid it, and the only thing keeping me from even considering doing something . . . permanent about it is the fact that I _know_ my family and friends are out there and that unlike everyone else here, I _know_ they can deal with this kind of thing. I know that no matter how much I want to escape this, if I wait a little longer there might be a less deadly way to escape. I'm scared, Mom. This is evil and it surrounds me. It permeates me. It whispers suggestions in my head and there is nowhere to run."

* * *

Wyatt get's a really lose tongue when it comes to his family.

Want to find out what the deal is with Wyatt's unicorn? In the next chapter, "A Unicorn Named El" you will find out all about it.


	23. A Unicorn Named El

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - And it's only getting worse.

gabrieldarke - Wow! It has been a while. I think you popped in for a a story several back to say hi after an absense. I hope you stick around longer. It's great to hear from you. On to your comments. Yep, that's the unicorn, but since we only saw that unicorn that once, I always assumed that they sent him back when magic started working, again. However, I need horn powder (actually for something else coming up and not for this, but I decided this would be a good thing to use here, so I decided to use something Brianna would believe very hard to get). I don't recall golden geese, but that wouldn't surprise me. That day was pretty wacked. I'll try to pay attention the next time I watch that episode. And believe me, I know about real life deciding to kick you. I'm still trying to get it to settle in that my grandma is really dead (she died in July). And there were (and are) issues with my job. So welcome back. I hope you are able to stick around longer this time.

Before you read this chapter, I want you to do something for me. Wyatt named his unicorn El for reasons that will be explained in this chapter, however, he cannot use the full name among non magical people, so he needs a name that fits, but has no magical background. If you would try and come up with a two word name that Wyatt might use (I've given up for the present) and mention it in the review, I would very much appreciate it. If I like any ideas any one suggests I will use it and of course give you credit the first time I use it on any site where I post. El's actual name will remain the same. It is only what Wyatt will tell people who answer that will change. He official has his "horse" listed as El and frequently gets questions about it. If you do not wish to make a suggestion, that's fine. I still would love to see your review of the chapter.

That said, this is a fun chapter . . . or it is until Chris remembers that he owns a cell phone.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Three – A Unicorn Named El

Chris wobbled away from Brianna and sank down onto the ground. "Any way you can turn that thing down?"

Brianna bit her lip to keep from laughing. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, I am completely serious," he informed her. "I don't know what it is that makes me and . . ." he waved his hand in her direction, "blinking, incompatible, but is there any possible way to turn it down."

She shook her head. "Sorry, no. There's no voltage switch. Either I'm using it or I'm not."

Chris chuckled weakly. "It was worth a shot." He forced himself to stand back up and grinned at her. "You ready to meet a unicorn?"

She laughed. "How did your brother even end up with a pet unicorn in the first place?"

"Well, the elders send him when Wy as born," Chris began as he walked over to a post and leaned against it, "because they knew magic would be stopped and they knew we'd need it. Of course they wanted him back afterward, so my parents returned him. When magic stopped again, he just kind of showed up. Mom got worried since this white 'horse' was catching attention. Wy begged to keep him."

"And your mom just let him?" Brianna asked in disbelief.

Chris shook his head. "Not even close. I think he was seven when she finally relented. That's about four years. We found out later he was the same unicorn from before." He snorted. "Actually we had to find out that he was a unicorn first, because before then we thought we just had a white horse that was extremely attached to my brother."

"You didn't know you had a unicorn?" Brianna burst out laughing. "How could you not know? There's a horn sticking out of its forehead."

Chris chuckled. "Just wait." He led the way down a dirt path through some trees and turned to look at her as they came to a break in the trees.

Brianna looked through the trees to see a stable. Saddled horses ran around in a pen at the lead of their riders. A smile tugged at her lips as she turned to look at Chris. "Do you come here very often?"

He shook his head. "Not really. El's Wy's and . . ."

"El?" she interrupted. "You named a male unicorn, you did say male, right?" When Chris nodded she continued. "You named a male unicorn 'El'?"

Chris chuckled as he started walking toward the stable. "It's short for Elder Whitelighter, but we don't spread that around too much. If someone asks what El stands for, Wy has all sorts of interesting answers. I think he's trying to find one he likes that isn't magical in origin."

"What kind of interesting answers?" she asked as she took several quick steps to reach his side.

"Eloquent Mane was one of the more believable, I think," he informed her.

She stopped and stared at him. "Seriously?"

He nodded. "Quite serious."

She laughed some more as she followed him down to the stable. He waved at some people as they passed through the stable. They stopped at the end.

Brianna looked into the stable and saw nothing. "Is this the right place?"

"El, safe," Chris announced.

What at first appeared to be a pile of straw moreover as a small white horse resembling an overgrown Shetland pony stood up and shook about. El trotted over to edge of the pen and stuck his head out.

"El, meet Brianna," Chris instructed. "She may be a friend."

Brianna rolled her eyes. "I'm not sure that's complimentary."

Chris reached out and rubbed El's nose. "I barely know you. If, in time, I get to know you better, maybe that will change."

Suddenly El reared back, lay down on the ground, and seemingly turned into a pile of straw.

Brianna stared in surprise. "What . . ?"

"Halliwell," a voice behind them began, "I heard you were here with a hotty. Wasting your time on your brother's mangy pony?"

Chris turned around to glare at the intruder. "What's your problem, Carson?"

"Your 'horse' has been showing up my Dandelion Queen," the man named Carson announced, "I don't appreciate that at all."

"Well, maybe you ought to train Dandy rather than just use her to show to the girl of the week," Chris suggested with a glare.

Carson glared back. "You don't belong here, Halliwell."

Chris shrugged. "I'm not too interested."

Carson went off in a huff.

"Old rival?" Brianna asked as she walked him walk away.

"Of Wy's," Chris commented. "And more current, I guess. Carson is often complaining that El does better than Dandy, which might have something to do with Carson's dislike of Wy." He turned back to look at El. "El, Wyatt's in trouble and we need some of your horn dust, please."

"That's it?"

"Watch," he suggested.

The air around El's forehead shimmered and a horn grew out of it.

Brianna watched with a child like glee. "That's so cool." She took out a small container and handed it to Chris.

He took is and held it up next to El.

The unicorn bent down his head and shook it, allowing dust from his horn to settle into the container. He stopped and looked at Chris with big brown horse eyes.

Chris smiled. "Thanks, El." He capped the container and put it with the rest of the ingredients. Then, he nuzzled the unicorn's nose affectionately. "I guess we'd best go before things get any worse at the museum." He patted the unicorn one more time as the unicorn's horn slowly disappeared. "Bye, El. I'll make sure Wy comes to see you and to thank you personally."

Brianna smiled. "Thanks, El. It was nice meeting you."

"Let's head to my apartment first," he suggested as they began the walk to the entrance. "I want to see if Seth called. And I don't particularly want to deal with my mom yet. She'll coddle me."

"You don't have a cell?"

Chris grimaced. "Right. I forgot."

She starred at him amazed as he dug into his pocket. "You forgot about your cell?"

He opened it up and blinked. "Six messages."

He put it to his ear and listened. The first voice on there was Seth. "Hey, Chris. It's Seth. I found something interesting about those articles I left you. Call me."

His curiosity peeked, Chris listened to the next message, also from Seth. "Chris. Seth, again. It's been almost an hour. Did you forget your phone despite your promise?"

Apparently Seth didn't want to leave anything on there that might mention magic. Chris waited and listened to the next message. This one wasn't from Seth. "Chris, we might have something for you. Apparently someone did this deliberately, but didn't want it permanent."

Chris tried to digest his mother's words as the voice mail went onto the next one, again from Seth. "Chris, I still haven't heard from you. What are you doing? And why don't you answer your phone?"

Seth was sounding more worried. His mom's words on the next message where more cheerful. "Peanut, we might have something for you soon. Call me."

Chris liked the sound of that. He listened to the last message from only a few minutes before they arrived at the stable. "Chris, I'm at your apartment with Peter. We need to talk."

Chris had no idea what Seth needed to talk about, but one thing was clear. Chris closed his phone and turned to Brianna. "Definitely to the apartment next."

* * *

In addition to the six messages, there are various missed calls.

In the next chapter, "Reality", you get to find out what's going on in Wyatt's head as he confronts one of his co-workers and battles against the effects of the curse.


	24. Reality

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - I like that. Elf Lord is a name a kid could certainly come up with and not necessarily the first thing an adult will want to admit to, even though it is a perfectly good name. Thanks. As to Chris cell phone, it doesn't stretch my imagination that someone would forget they had one. I do it all the time, though I am getting better at it. I'm sure I'm not the only one. However, I do have very specific plans on how to teach Chris not to forget his cell phone. It will be a very hard lesson for him with some horrible consequences that could have been worse if he didn't have his cell. If he survives (insert evil laugh here), he won't soon forget that lesson.

Olivia's awake and Wyatt has to deal with trying to convince her that he is real.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Four – Reality

Wyatt stared across the room at Olivia. She had awakened during his conversation with his mom and he had chosen to end the conversation quickly before she heard something she shouldn't hear.

"You're not real," Olivia insisted suddenly.

Wyatt looked at her wearily. "Of course I'm real."

Olivia shook her head hard. "No, you're not. Wyatt's covered in blood, so much blood."

Wyatt shook his head and took a step toward her. "No, Olivia. You called the paramedics. You got them here in time. You saved my life, Olivia." Had she not been there his family wouldn't have known about his injuries in time to do anything to save him. Though she had no magic, Olivia really had saved his life.

Olivia shook her head and hugged her knees to her chest. "No, Wyatt's dead. There was so much blood, so much blood." She started rocking back and forth, back and forth. "So much blood. How can you stand it? I see it everywhere."

_Silence her._

Wyatt shuddered as the thought ran through his mind.

_Make her quiet and make her stay that way._

Wyatt forced the thought back. He didn't want to hurt Olivia. "Olivia, I need you to come with me. Kelly's around here somewhere and I need to makes sure she's alright." He walked over to her and stopped when she tried to back up closer to the wall.

"Not real," she announced. "You're not real."

Wyatt sighed and reached out his hand, taking hers into his. "I am real, Olivia. I am real and I am alive. I am also Wyatt. You saved me, Olivia. You saved my life, so that I didn't die."

Olivia stared down at his hand holding hers. "You're real?"

Wyatt nodded. "I'm real."

Olivia pulled her hand out of his and wrapped her arms around her thighs and sobbed. Not sure what else to do, Wyatt sat down next to her and hugged her. It wasn't as if she could infect him. He already was infected.

It was several minutes before she stopped crying and Wyatt just held her, uncertain what else to do. He knew he needed to check on Nathan and Andrew. He needed to find Kelly and determine if she had been infected or not. And he needed to try calling his brother now that he had another phone to use.

Right now, though, he had a scared coworker who needed him here.

When she finally stopped crying she sniffed and looked up at him. She was shaking as she said, "I'm glad you're not dead, Wyatt."

He smiled. "Me, too."

She grinned and a tiny laugh escaped her lips. "The blood's gone."

Wyatt looked around. "You actually saw blood?"

She nodded. "Lots of it. And now I feel a lot better."

"Do you feel up to coming with me?" he asked, knowing that was really the only option. He couldn't leave her here.

"No more blood?"

He sighed. "I don't know. I'm trying to prevent that. You tried to kill yourself, Olivia."

She nodded. "I know. I remember that. I just wanted to escape the blood." She looked down at her wrists. There was no sign of them having been cut. "I don't understand how they healed so quickly. Do you?"

"You must have a guardian angel looking out for you today," he suggested as he stood and offered her his hand.

Olivia clasped his hand and let him pull her up. Then, she looked at him with a smile on her face and wiped away her tears. "Thanks."

"No problem," he replied easily. "I'm glad you feel better." _Because I sure don't._ At least the voice hadn't made any more suggestions to harm Olivia. "Do you remember banging on one of the doors earlier?" he asked as they exited the room.

She nodded. "Lauren's office. The auditor is in there." She frowned as she looked down the hall. "It was locked. I found that odd."

"Blame me for that," he admitted. "Strange things were going on downstairs, so when I went up to see him, I warned him to lock himself in."

She looked at him, confused. "Why didn't you just suggest that he leave?"

Wyatt froze mid-step. He sighed. "I had already attempted to leave. I wanted to see if I could reach my brother if I left the building and found I couldn't leave the building. Someone locked the door."

Olivia stared at him stunned. She started breathing hard and rocking back and forth again. "Someone wants us dead," she decided when she managed to gasp her breath again."

"I don't think it's that simple," he commented. "Olivia, I really need you to come with me."

"Come where?" she asked cautiously.

"I am going to go down and check on Nathan and Andrew," Wyatt informed her.

"Are they okay?" she asked almost wistfully.

"Not even close," he admitted, thinking of how he had left his two friends.

"What's wrong?" she asked looking scared.

"Can you trust me?"

She stared at him for several seconds and shook her head. "I just don't know, Wyatt. Something is wrong here and you seem to have all the answers. That's not always a good thing."

"I can't just leave you here," he protested. He closed his eyes and tried sensing through the building. He had no trouble identifying that Nate was still unharmed. The other three were more difficult, farther away, but something didn't feel right.

"Sure you can," she argued. "I'm fine, Wyatt."

"You tried to kill yourself, Olivia," he reminded her. "That's not fine.

"I feel much better, now," she informed him. "Well, I still am quite uneasy, I no longer see blood, and I no longer feel the need to do anything to escape it."

"And if it comes back?"

"It won't," she decided.

"You can't know that."

"I can," she announced stubbornly.

Wyatt closed his eyes, again, and focused on his three coworkers. He wasn't sure where Kelly was, but he figured the two together had to be Nathan and Andrew and something was wrong with them. He sighed. "Olivia, I have to go. Please, just come."

Olivia shook her head. "I'm going to get out of here."

"The doors are locked," he reminded her. "And don't you dare touch these windows. You wouldn't survive the fall."

She scowled at him. "Fine. I'm still checking the doors. Maybe they missed one."

Wyatt closed his eyes and as soon as he tried to sense Nathan and Andrew, his senses started screaming. He ran out of Kate's office without another word. As soon as he was out of sight, he orbed out. Olivia was in control, at least for now. Somewhere in the basement one of his friends was dying.

* * *

What do you think is going on down there that has Wyatt convinced one of his friends is dying?

The next chapter is a long one. It's called "The Truth As You See It" and in it Prue contemplates the fallacy of the Truth Spell in connection to her own attempt at it and hopes her nephew didn't make a mistake by using it on Emily. Do you think he did?


	25. The Truth As You See It

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Obviously you'll have to wait and see, but it is something I want you to think about. As to Olivia, not everyone is going to be lovable. Her major "lovability" factor was that she saved Wyatt's life when he needed the help. She might end up becoming someone you like more or not. For now, she has done what I needed her to do.

For anyone who is interested in why Chris can use his sensing power and his invisiblity (because yes, he can use that), but not his orbing, Piper is right in her estimation of the situation here.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Five – The Truth As You See It

"I can't believe this!" Piper exclaimed excitedly as she looked down at the tiny remnants of the potion used to strip her son's powers. She had only needed a little to figure out a potion to reverse it, but this was beyond believing.

Paige looked down at the liquid poured into a small glass. She blinked in surprise as she noticed that it appeared to have separated. An amber liquid settled on one side and a blue liquid on the other.

"Watch," Piper directed as Prue came over and looked down at it skeptically. She covered the glass with a saucer and held it tight. Then, she picked up the glass and swirled it around. Holding the saucer on tightly, she held it up for her sisters to see. The liquid was well mixed, a brownish blue color.

Unimpressed Paige looked up at Piper. "So?"

Prue shook her head. "Piper, this is a waste of time."

Piper smiled. "Just watch." She lifted off the saucer and placed the glass down. Several seconds passed and then suddenly the colors began to separate, almost violently, spreading to different sides of the glass. Piper looked up at her sisters with a big grin on her face. "I might be mistaken, but I think we have a sample of the anti-orbing gel that inflicted my boys a couple of months ago. And if we've got a sample, that means I have the chance to find an actual cure." She looked at her two sisters, her grin big. "We'd never have to worry about long term orbing loss for Paige or the boys or any whitelighters at all. We'd be doing the magical community at large a huge favor."

"You know what this means right?" Prue asked.

Piper looked at her questioningly. "That I should start working on this potion?"

Prue shook her head. "Not this minute. If someone comes to you for a cure, you might be able to use the one you made for Chris," she commented dismissively. "No, it means that someone believed the stripping potion wouldn't take care of Chris' orbing, so they mixed the two. If he has other whitelighter powers, it might mean he still has those. It also means that we need to try and call your other son and see if there's anything we can do to help him. I don't like not going after the demon behind this. We may not be able to cast a power of three spell, but we're still the Charmed Ones . . . more or less."

"Yeah, but it is more or is it less?" Paige retorted.

"What does that mean?" Emily asked from the doorway into the kitchen. "The power of three, the Charmed Ones. What does that mean?"

All three sisters turned to look at her, having completely forgotten her. Piper raised an eyebrow at her. "Exactly how much have my sons told you about magic?"

"_Exactly_ how much?" she repeated. "Well." She wrinkled her nose and shrugged. "Exactly very little, though I gather from it that Chris had a terrible life in another reality and Wyatt was a magical murderer in that other reality. And I have a pretty good grasp on what orbing is, though the way they describing I haven't a clue why they can do it."

"They can orb, because they are half whitelighter," Paige informed her, slightly put out.

Emily shrugged. "See that doesn't make any sense. It's not like being Irish. I mean, aren't whitelighters . . . dead?"

Prue chuckled. "You might have a point there. Both Piper's husband and my own died prior to marrying us. Both are now living once more and no longer whitelighters."

Paige gave her a look. "I'm a whitelighter."

"Do you have charges?" Emily asked.

"Yes," Paige replied instantly, before changing her answer. "No, not at the moment."

"Hmm," was the only response Emily gave.

"I think that's enough of you," Piper announced. "Did you have anything else that we could help you with?"

"Get my brother out of that building alive," she replied without hesitation.

Piper's face softened. She'd forgotten that Emily did have stake in the problems of the day. "From the sound of it, your brother should be just fine. I'll make sure to let you know as soon as I hear that he is safely out of there."

Emily smiled. "No need," she assured them. "I'll know the moment he gets off the phone with Matt, because Matt will call me to lecture me, again."

Piper looked at her confused. "Wyatt has his cell, how is he supposed to call Matt?"

"Oh, don't you worry there," Emily returned unconcerned. "My brother's are very resourceful. There's no doubt he find a way to borrow one," a mischievous look crossed her face as she added, "with or without the owners knowledge."

"Your brother would steal a cell phone!" Prue exclaimed.

Emily shrugged. "He'd put it right back. They'd never even miss it."

Prue looked at Emily, disturbed. "You have no issues with this?"

Emily chuckled. "Nate's an accountant, not a pick pocket. He can do it if he had a mind to, but he wouldn't. There are rules you know." She looked at the three sisters. "So no, I have no issues with this."

"Odd family," Paige commented.

Emily gave her an innocent look. "Says the witch whose dad died at least six decades before she was born." She nodded with laughter in her eyes. "Yep, I'm the one with the weird family." She looked at Piper. "You're right though, I no longer have a reason to be here. I'm completely lost when it comes to magic and you don't need me underfoot right now. I'd like to learn, but today is clearly not the best time to do that." She sighed. "I can show myself out. It was nice meeting you, Prue, and to be formally introduced to you, Paige."

Piper watched her for a second and then turned back to her potions. "We've got something for Chris," she repeated her earlier assessment, "so I guess we'd better call him."

"You trust her?" Prue asked, looking at Piper curious.

Piper sighed. "Chris trusts her, and you have to admit, all problems aside, it's hard to argue with a truth spell."

* * *

_Andy round the corner toward his apartment, juggling a bag of groceries while he hunted his pocket for his keys. When he reached his door, he was surprised to see Prue standing there. "Prue."_

_"Andy," she greeted him as he came to a stop in front of her. "I need to know how you feel about what I told you."_

_"I'm gonna need a little more time," he informed as he walked past her and reached toward the door with his key._

_Prue turned with him. "I don't have time, Andy."_

_He stopped and looked at her._

_"I need to know before eight."_

_"Alright," he conceded and nodded at the door. "Won't you come inside and we'll talk about it." He went back to work on the lock with his key._

_"I can't," she informed him._

_"Prue . . ." he began._

_"Andy, no," she repeated firmly. In a dead serious tone, she continued with, "Look, if I come inside, we'll have drinks, there'll be small talk, and precious minutes will pass. I need to know now." The look on her face earnest and a bit sad as if she suspected the answer would not be the one she wanted. "Can you or can you not accept that I am a witch?"_

_Andy's lips moved slightly as he tried to form the words on his lips. "If I have to answer right now . . ."_

_Her eyes were big as she watched and listened._

_". . . I don't think so, Prue."_

_Prue looked down, sadness in her eyes, tears starting to fall._

_"I mean there's nothing wrong with it, I guess," he continued, solemnly. "It's just not a future I envision having."_

_Then the bell had rung in eight o'clock and the end of the spell, leaving Andy with no memory of what had been said or done that day._

_

* * *

_

_It was a few months later, a week after Andy had found out about magic, again, he was none too happy when he found out about the truth spell. "You did what last year?" he asked annoyed as he hurried down the stairs from the attic, glancing back at her in exasperation._

_"Look," Prue tried to explain as she followed his down. "I just wanted to see how you would react to finding out I was a witch."_

_"So you cast a truth spell on me," he shot back even as he slowed down at the bottom of the stairs. "Why didn't you just ask?" Instead of looking at her, he looked away toward the door._

_"Oh, because I was afraid you'd freak out on me," she explained, more than a touch of annoyance in her own voice. "Which is exactly what you did, by the way, you just don't remember. Part of the spell."_

_"Wait a minute," he stopped her, turning around. "My reaction to your being a witch isn't the reason why we stopped seeing each other, is it?" he asked, hands on his hips._

_"You're the one who wanted to stop seeing me first," she reminded him._

_"Because you wouldn't tell me what your secret was," he shot back in disbelief._

_"Yeah," she agreed, "which turned out to be a good thing considering how you reacted."_

_"Freaked out," he repeated, annoyed._

_"Exactly," she agreed, again, "Kinda like what you're doing right now."_

_"You haven't answered my question," he informed her, lowering his tone. "Did that have anything to do with why we stopped seeing each other?"_

_"Sorta," she spat out. When Andy gave her a searching look, requesting a straight answer, she sighed and in a normal voice admitted, "Okay, yeah, it did."_

_"And just out of curiosity," he continued. "How much time did you give me to react anyway?"_

_"Why?" Prue asked, confused. "What difference does it make?"_

_"How much time?" he repeated firmly._

_"A minute," at his widening eyes, she backpedaled with, "or two."_

_"A minute?" Andy exclaimed in disbelief._

_"Or two," she repeated in defense. "It, it, it was a twenty-four hour spell, all right. I was against the clock."_

_"And that's what you based your entire decision about us on?" Andy asked, stunned. "Prue, I've had a week to react to it this time. I still don't know how I feel. You shouldn't given me more time. I think I deserve that. I think we deserve that."_

_Prue sighed and the moment, such as it was, was broken as Phoebe came down the stairs to join them._

_

* * *

_

_Later that day, Andy came to Buckland's to tell her he needed to talk. "Listen, Prue," he began, breaking a happy mood with his serious tone. "I've done some thinking about the truth spell."_

_Prue nodded and let him talk._

_"And well, I'm still trying to sort my feelings out, but I've kind come to the conclusion that no matter whether I had a minute, a month, or a year to think about it, it wouldn't change the truth. It may sound boring, but I know someday, I want to have a normal life to come home to. With a white picket fence, a two car garage, a screaming kid . . ."_

_Prue smiled at that, an amused sound escaping her lips._

_". . . But no demons."_

_She nodded and sighed. She'd known this was coming._

_He sighed, too. "Maybe it's because of all the evil I deal with everyday on the job. I don't know."_

_"You don't have to explain," she stopped him, shaking her head. "I understand. Believe me I wouldn't want to come home to it either if I could avoid it, but I can't. You can."_

_He nodded ever so slightly._

_She smiled, and wrapped her arms around him, a good-bye, of sorts, to what could have been._

* * *

And then Andy had died. He'd understood why they did what they did so much that he turned in his badge to avoid answering questions in an internal affairs investigation. And he'd cared for them so much that he had gone into their home, knowing about a premonition that Phoebe had where he died, knowing that Rodriguez was a demon, almost certainly the one who would kill him. And then when he knew they could have let time be reversed, again, he told her to make sure it wasn't, that she had taught him everything happened for a reason.

Prue shook her head with a sad smile. _I lost so much time there._ "Sometimes things aren't always what they seem. You can say a complete lie, if it is what you believe. According to the spell, the truth . . . is the truth according to what they know at that moment in time."

And for that moment in time, that was the truth for Andy, but there was another moment in time. It was over ten years later when the other side of the matter had presented itself.

* * *

_"This was more Phoebe's thing," Prue admitted as she looked at Paige. She had pulled her long blonde hair into a pony tail, something her hair hadn't seen in more years than she cared to consider. _I can't believe I'm actually doing this. I'll probably pull a muscle.

_Running Buckland's had not been a particularly stressful activity . . . physically. There had been no need for training. In fact, she'd been so busy with Buckland's and Piper had been so busy with Chez Magique, Melinda, and the divorce, that Phoebe had been the only one doing anything with magic or demons or any of it in months._

_And Phoebe was dead, killed because, ironically _she_ had misused magic. It wasn't as if she didn't, in retrospect Prue realized that. It was more that she did it the least of the three sisters._

Four sisters_, Prue amended as she ducked a kick directed at her midsection. They'd been at this for half an hour already. Paige had asked her to show her some moves she used when fighting demons and it had quickly become apparent that Prue was rusty and Paige had some skills._

_Another kick from Paige and Prue forced her attention back on her friend and newly discovered sister. _How could we have known her all these years and had no clue that she was also our sister?_ She heaved in a breath and landed a well-aimed punch at Paige's midsection, right before she doubled over in pain._

_Paige stopped instantly and looked at Prue with concerned. "Prue, are you all right?"_

_Prue moaned and clutched her midsection. "I don't know," she admitted through clenched teeth._

_"Leo!" Paige screamed. "Leo!"_

_Leo appeared in front of them in white orb bubbles. Seeing Prue his eyes widened. "Prue, what happened?" He held his hands against her stomach._

_"I don't know," she repeated. "Leo, something is wrong."_

_"But not with you," Leo informed her puzzled. "How did this happen?"_

_"We were sparring," Paige told him concerned. "She landed one on me and she was the one who went down." She placed a concerned hand on Prue's shoulder and was instantly surrounded in orb bubbles._

* * *

The vision Paige had been pulled into, a most bizarre combination of Phoebe's premonitions and the orbing ability Paige possessed due to her whitelighter father, Sam, had taken her far away to the other side of the planet where a young woman lay crying over her dying whitelighter.

Paige had ordered Leo to follow her and to bring Prue.

* * *

_Prue wobbled as Leo let go of her. In all their years of having him as a whitelighter, she had only been orbed once or twice. Leo had put his foot down after a time and he'd stopped orbing anyone, even Piper places. That had been a week and a half after that had met Sam. Sam's situation with Patty Halliwell twenty odd years before had mirrored the story unfolding before everyone's eyes with Piper and Leo._

_After they had saved Sam from sacrificing himself for Prue, and much to Prue's relief, saved her, too, he had been none too happy about it, but the three sisters had badgered him for stories about their mom, especially Phoebe. It had taken four days, sixteen hours, and ten bowls of chocolate ice cream to get him not only relaxed enough, but also hyped up on sugar enough to talk. Most of that had been Phoebe's doing._

_Six days later he had told them a story about orbing their mom somewhere and how she's nearly gotten killed as a result. Leo had over heard the story and after that he refused to orb them anywhere._

_And yet, ten years later, here they were._

_Paige looked around and quickly spotted the young woman from her premonition. "Leo, there."_

_Leo followed her running form as she sprinted over to the young woman crying over the still form of a man._

_She looked up at the sound of running footsteps. "Can you help him?" she asked, pleading. "He won't let me even try."_

_The first thing Prue saw was the arrow sticking out of the man's back. "Turn him on his side," she directed. "We have to get that thing out of him."_

_Leo knelt down and felt for a pulse. It did no good to try healing until the arrow was removed, but he wanted to know if the man was even alive._

_"You can't touch it," the woman protested._

_"I know," Prue admitted, thinking of the first time she had seen a darklighter's arrow, deeply embedded in Leo's body._

_"Then what . . ?" The woman stopped as she watched Paige and Leo turn the man on his side._

_"Your whitelighter?" Prue queried as she readied her hand._

_The young woman just nodded._

_Prue waved her arm and sent the arrow the rest of the way through the dying whitelighter's body and into a nearby concrete wall, snapping it in two._

_Paige helped Leo turn the whitelighter over the rest of the way. It wasn't until Paige moved out of the way to allow Leo space that Prue glimpsed the whitelighter's face._

_"Andy!"_

* * *

Prue had never truly gotten over Andy's death, but she had moved on with her life. She had spent ten years without him and suddenly, there he was. Just knowing that he was literally just a call away had been hard, but for once things seemed to go her way and in time Andy had been granted permission to not only see her, but ultimately to marry her.

* * *

_"Thanks, Aunt Prue!" Melinda called out as she grabbed her homework off the table and ran toward where Leo stood in the doorway._

_Prue smiled and waved._

_"Thanks for watching her, Prue," Leo said over his daughter's head as Melinda hugged his torso._

_"Anne thinks I'm nuts," Prue informed him with a laugh._

_"There are worse things," he reminded her as orb lights swirled around next to her._

_"Get out of here, Leo," Prue ordered good naturedly as the orbs turned into her boyfriend, Andy Trudeau._

_Leo smiled and grabbed Melinda's hand. "Say good-bye to Prue, Melinda."_

_"Bye, Aunt Prue," Melinda called out before pulling Leo toward the hall. "Come on, Daddy. I want to show you what I did in school today."_

_As the door closed behind them Prue turned to Andy. "I thought they said you couldn't come here, too much magical exposure risk or something like that."_

_"Actually, I think the ruling from then was that I stay out of places in this building with cameras unless I am glamoured, since I am still officially dead," Andy informed her. He smiled at her. "No cameras here."_

_Prue smiled back at him. She learned over and planted a kiss on his lips. "So how's my favorite whitelighter doing?"_

_"I believe he's doing good, hanging out with his daughter and all," Andy teased._

_"Not Leo," Prue gave him a little shove in the shoulder. "You. How are you, Andy?"_

_"Nervous, if you must know," he replied matter of fact._

_Prue looked at him puzzled. "Nervous? Whatever for?"_

_"Remember when you asked if I could accept that you were a witch and what you really meant was could I accept that I was dating a witch?"_

_Prue nodded, a little sad at the memory. "And you said no, twice."_

_"Yeah, well I don't precisely remember that first time," he reminded her. "So it's probably best we don't go into that one."_

_She nodded. "You were nervous then," she mumbled to herself._

_"What's that?"_

_"Oh, you were nervous that day, too," she commented, wondering what had him nervous today. "We both were, but this time I'm not the one with a secret. You know I'm a witch. Why you chose to risk coming her and being seen by Anne, is a mystery to me."_

_"Maybe because you still spend far too much time here and I wanted to see you today, rather than next week," he teased. "So do you have time for me?"_

_"Of course," she informed him. "You had just to ask."_

_"And what if I wanted more of your time than this?" he asked looking at her questioningly. "What if I want to come home to you every night?"_

_"You sleep?" Prue asked, regretting voicing the thought as soon as it exited her mouth. "I mean . . . I . . .Oh, dear."_

_Andy chuckled. "You've known Leo how long and yet you ask that question?"_

_Prue gave him a wry smile. "Before I embarrass myself anymore, why don't you explain what you _are_ talking about, Andy. You want to move into my little bitty apartment with me? You might have noticed I'm never there."_

_"No," he told her with a smile on his face. "I want you to marry me."_

* * *

To say she was stunned would not have scratched the surface of her emotions. With everything that had happened since the elders let Piper and Leo marry, she never expected they would let Andy and her marry. She'd been surprised that he'd been allowed to date her.

It wasn't as if normal was ever going to happen to him at that point, but that had never been in the plans for Andrew David Trudeau, believer in the supernatural. What he had wanted was normal to come home to. When his desire to live his life out with Prue at his side had outweighed his desire to come home to a white picket fence, a two car garage, a screaming kid, and no demons, he'd ended up with all but the no demons. Truth had changed as Andy had changed. Had he again been asked those same questions from all those years ago, he would answered differently, and it would have still been truth, because it was the truth as Andy saw it, not some universal truth that was unchangeable. And that was worried Prue about Emily. When it came to feelings or opinions or plans, truth changed.

* * *

If anyone is interested in where the flashbacks are from:

1) Charmed - "The Truth is Out There ... And It Hurts"  
2) Charmed - "The Power of Two"  
3) Charmed - "The Power of Two"  
4) Charmed: Witch Hunts - "Beloved Whitelighter"  
5) Charmed: Witch Hunts - "Beloved Whitelighter"  
6) Charmed: Witch Hunts - "First and Final Love"

As the episode of _Charmed: Witch Hunts_ are not yet ready to be posted, for now you just get a chance to see a portion of how Prue and Andy ended up together in this series as seen from Prue's view point.

In the next chapter, "Escalation", Wyatt arrives in the basement with very little time left if he is going to save the life of a friend and he's stunned by something he learns.


	26. Escalation

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - I'm glad that you enjoyed the flashbacks. I had a lot of fun writing the new ones. As to Emily, it's always good to have people feeling about characters the way I want them to. It will take the Charmed Ones more time around her to draw their own conclusions.

In this chapter Wyatt must deal with two things. The more immediate is a dying friend. He expected that. What he didn't expect is what the other friend tells him.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Six – Escalation

Wyatt orbed in right outside the open door to the basement storage room. The open door worried him, but Wyatt ignored it and entered the room. He found Nathan on the ground, blood seeping out of a head. Andrew was on his knees, his shirt stripped off and pressing against Nathan's wound. He looked up at the sound of Wyatt's footsteps. His eyes were filled with terror and appeared to be completely lucid.

Wyatt covered the last few feet as fast as he could move and dropped down to his friend's said. "Did he do that?"

Andrew shook his head. "I'm sorry."

Wyatt looked at Andrew shocked. "You did this?"

"Not now," Andrew pleaded. "You can berate and pick my mind later. Nathan's dying, Wyatt." The next words out of Andrew's mouth stunned Wyatt. "You have to heal him, Wyatt. I don't think he'll survive otherwise."

Wyatt stared at him. "You aren't Andrew. Andrew doesn't know anything about that."

Andrew gave a half hearted laugh. "You have no idea what I know, Wy. Right now none of that is important."

"Are you a witch?" Wyatt accused.

A ghost of a smile crossed Andrew's face. "No magic, sorry. Nathan?"

Wyatt stared at his friend as if he had never seen him before. He felt for a pulse on Nathan and found one, weak and fading. With one last glance of confusion at Andrew he held his hands over Nathan's wound. A warm, golden glow covered his hands and the wound slowly healed.

Andrew watched with a mixture of amazement and relief. "Is he going to be okay?"

"He'll survive," Wyatt assured him. "But okay? Nathan doesn't believe in anything supernatural. He won't take any of this easily."

"I don't care about any of that," Andrew informed him before back tracking and saying, "not so much anyway. I'm more worried about the fact that I almost killed my best friend."

Wyatt starred at him as Nathan's wound completely healed up. He looked down at Nathan's closed eyes. A fluttering of eyelashes peeking open just enough to not be seen told him that Nathan was wide awake but not ready to announce it.

"What happened to me?" Andrew asked miserably. "First, I try to hang myself and now this. If you haven't come when you did. . ."

Wyatt shuddered. Yes, if he hadn't come when he did, he would be down a friend. And likely when this was all over, he'd be down another. Murder was rather difficult to explain away.

"How do I explain to him that I didn't mean it?" Andrew asked miserably. "How does one explain that sort of thing?"

"What happened?" Wyatt had to know. "How did you even get free? I . . ."

"Yes, I know," Andrew interpreted. "You tied us up for our own good. Though, it is worrying, if this is affecting you, too."

Something clicked in Wyatt's mind. "You are sounding more yourself. How did that happen?"

"You don't know?" Andrew asked sarcastically. "I figured you knew all about this." He didn't wait for an answer, instead looking down at Nathan with worry. "When's he going to wake up?" He grabbed Wyatt's shoulders and shook him. "Why isn't he waking up?"

_Don't let him push you around. Stop him._

Wyatt pushed Andrew's hands off his shoulders a little roughly. "Nathan."

Nathan peeked open an eye and gave them a chagrin look. He pushed himself up and looked into the glaring eyes of his best friend.

"You were faking!" Andrew exclaimed annoyed. "You made me worry!"

Nathan made a show of rubbing his head where his wound had been. "You tried to smash my head in with a statue."

Andrew glared at him and ignored his point. He started pacing the room, mumbling under his breath. "I can't believe I was worried about you. The whole time you were faking."

_Making him quiet._

Wyatt cringed and watched his friends. Andrew was becoming increasingly erratic, again. Nathan was watching Andrew with suspicious eyes. Whatever had caused them to act more within their norm was gone.

"Keep him away," Nathan ordered, his tone low. "Lacey and Glory need me."

It appeared his earlier words had affected Nathan.

_Whine. Whine. Whine. Who cares about his wife and kid? He'll kill you given the chance._

Wyatt forced his hand down. He didn't want to think about what that hand had been trying . "Andrew?"

Andrew stopped his pacing, turned and ran at Wyatt, surprising him as he toppled him over. "You did this, didn't you?"

Wyatt pushed his friend off of him and wrestled him to the ground. "Be reasonable," he demanded. "Would I stick around to get infected if I did?"

_Kill him._

"No!" Wyatt screamed at the voice, startling both Andrew and Nathan. He backed away from both of them, not trusting himself with Andrew's life in that moment. They both looked at him wearily. Wyatt looked back at them. Andrew's eyes were slightly glazed and wild.

_You don't need him. Get rid of him._

Wyatt shivered.

Despite being infected first, Nathan's eyes were suspicious, but clear.

Wyatt closed his eyes and tried to sense the others in the building. He couldn't identify them, but all three of them appeared fine. He opened his eyes again and looked at them.

_Wring his neck._

Wyatt backed up.

_Why did you save him? You don't need him. Let him kill himself._

Wyatt hit the wall behind him.

_They'll be in your way. Cut them loose._

Wyatt started breathing heavily.

Nathan looked at him with suspicious and a bit of curiosity. "Wyatt?"

_KILL HIM!_

Wyatt ran out of the room as fast as he could, unable to move away from his friends and the voice urging him to harm them fast enough.

* * *

As you can see, things are getting pretty bad for Wyatt. He has to deal with the curse and the mystery of why Andrew knows about magic. Do you know why Andrew knows about magic? The clues are in an early episode of Charmed.

What Wyatt is experiencing is simular to what Nathan, Andrew, and Olivia are experiencing. The difference is that his friends, especially Andrew and Olivia, are much farther gone than he is, the sanity slipping away. Nathan, though the first one infected, has grabbed on to the promise of returning alive and whole to his wife and unborn child and he is clutching it as a lifeline in the same way Wyatt has grabbed on to the promise of his family trying to find a cure. Do you think the four of them can hold on to their sanity (and their lives) long enough for help to reach them?

In the next chapter, "Fitting Things Together", Chris finally gets together with Seth and Peter and learns more about the four friends who while not cured have mostly beat the curse. One thing he learns is a major surprise to him.


	27. Getting Things Together

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - No, that's not fun at all, but he is trying to hold on.

In the chapter Chris finally gets to actually talk to his brother. For those of you who've been reading my IF rewrite (which yes, I still am working on) one of the flashbacks from that is in the chapter. Since that flashback is from Wyatt's point of view and this is from Chris, it's a little different. Also Chris learns something about the third of the three friends who were cursed before he was born.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Seven – Getting Things Together

Peter was sitting on the couch in Wyatt and Chris' apartment, remote in hand as he flipped through the channels. Seth was looking out the window, thinking.

"This has got to be a million ways illegal," Peter announced as he switched off the TV.

Seth looked at him confused. "What does?"

"Entering the apartment like we did," his brother informed him.

Seth chuckled. "I have permission to enter at anytime."

"I think they meant through the front door," Peter retorted.

"I left my key at home."

"You have a key?" he asked surprised.

Seth looked at him amused. "Yes, I have a key. Wyatt gave it to me a week after they moved in. You know, just in case."

Peter opened his mouth to respond and froze as the air fluttered and suddenly Chris and Brianna were there. His eyes widened as he looked at his brother. "Did you see that, Seth?"

Seth chuckled. "Yeah, I saw that." He raised an eyebrow at Brianna. "Why's she here?"

"She's helping me out," Chris informed him. "Some of my . . . he knows, right?"

Seth rolled his eyes. "If he didn't, he does now. He did know though, so you're safe."

"You called and said we needed to talk?" Chris asked, trying to change the subject.

Seth nodded. "Did you read the papers I gave you?"

Chris nodded. "It's hard to imagine Mr. Hollis and Mr. Lawson as cursed. Neither seems that way. I don't know the other two, so I can't say."

"We talked to Nick," Seth informed him, "the one of the four who isn't cursed. He feels guilty about that and he decided to keep track of the Aphrodite Crystal by putting surveillance on it. That means he has magic recorder, because three demons stole it."

Chris stared at him stunned. "He has magic recorded? I don't suppose you got the tape."

Seth shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I did however get last names for his three friends . . . though I guess you already know them."

"Just Reginald Hollis and Everett Lawson," Chris corrected. "I don't know who Jarod is."

"Jarod Powell is the one in the mental institute."

Chris frowned and glanced at the papers on the table. "Powell? As in Jody Powell."

Seth shrugged. "No clue. Who's Jody?"

"A former co-worker at Centennial," he informed them. He thought about Jody, about his dealings with her.

* * *

_"Mom, I am an adult," Jody Powell's annoyed voice announced from the other side of the break room door. The door handle turned and she entered the room, her cell phone to her ear. You can't forbid me from seeing him." Don't you even care anymore?"_

_Chris looked up from his coffee._

_Jody didn't even notice him. "Dad needs us, Mom. You can't keep me away from him." She began pacing the room. "I'm not afraid of him," she protested. "He's _never_ shown any inclination to hurt either of us. I'm going to go see him today." Jody slammed closed her phone and finally noticed Chris. She grimaced. "Sorry that you had to hear that."_

_"Are you okay?" he asked concerned._

_"Yeah," she assured him. "My mom and I have a difference of opinion. It's a long story and I really don't want to go into it."_

* * *

He'd just let it go. Now, he wondered if that had been the right choice, but he doubted he would have learned of the curse from her. Chances were that Jody didn't know anything about that.

Chris walked over to the table and picked up the paper that said "Jarod" on top. He turned to Brianna. "Do we have enough ingredients for three more antidotes?"

"You have an antidote?" Seth asked surprised.

"Not yet," Brianna informed him. "What have is ingredients and a recipe, but we'll have an antidote soon. "She looked over at Chris. "We'll have enough, but let's get moving."

The phone in Chris's pocket began to ring. Startled Chris pulled it out and looked at the caller ID. "Nate Colson?" With a shrug he put the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"Chris, I'm going crazy here," Wyatt's voice announced over the phone.

Chris breathed a sigh of relief. "Wyatt, you're all right."

"I am nowhere near all right," Wyatt disagreed. "I'm going crazy and this whole thing is driving me nuts."

"I could join you," Chris suggested.

"No, absolutely no," Wyatt informed Chris over the phone. "I will not risk your life, too. It's bad enough that I have suicidal co-workers to watch out for. I don't want to have a suicidal brother, too."

"Wy, think," Chris implored him. "It'd be the other way. I'd be affected the same way you are; I'd stay sane after you were losing it. I could protect you."

"No," Wyatt returned flatly thinking of Andrew's anguish over what he had done to Nathan. "If there is no cure, this is staying with us. I'm not adding another person to the potential dead."

"No one's going to die," Chris argued. "There is a cure. We just have to find it."

A confused look from Brianna caused Chris to mentally amend that. _Or rather we have to mix it together._

"That's another thing," Wyatt responded, unaware of his brother's thoughts. "You have to be able to look at sources I can't. You have to be able to contact people."

Chris scowled and slammed a book into the apartment wall.

Seth looked up from the laptop and over at the book falling onto the couch next to him.

From the doorway, Peter's eyes grew wide as he looked from the book to Chris.

Brianna actually had the nerve to watch him amused. This was mild compared to some of the arguments her friends had at times. CT and Max sometimes seemed like they were trying to end each other when they tried to let off some steam.

Seth was not so nonchalant as he looked from the book to Chris, suspicion in his eyes. "You aren't trying to off me, are you?"

Chris glared at him, not bothering to answer. "Seth's here. He could do outside recon." As if much was needed anymore. They just had to find those three demons behind this and they knew where one of them was.

"There answer is no, Christopher." There was a pause before he added, "Besides, you can't get in. I think there's some sort of magical barrier around the building. We can't leave."

Chris didn't like the sound of that. "You can't leave?"

"Why do you think I told your friend's brother to lock himself in Lauren's office?" Wyatt threw back.

Chris frowned. "So you're saying you can't orb out?"

Brianna looked at him, curiosity on her face.

"Exactly," he confirmed. "I can't orb out and I can't walk out. I've tried the doors. Someone's planned this out well." Chris could hear a shaky breath being drawn in on the other end.

"Wyatt? What aren't you telling me?" he didn't know what it was, but there was definitely something not being said.

"It's enough to drive a person mad," Wyatt mumbled mostly to himself.

"Wy, we will find a way to get in there," Chris announced with more conviction than he felt. Oh, he knew they'd find a way in there, but would they find it in time."

"Bye," Wyatt said suddenly without explanation and then the phone went dead.

Chris looked at the phone in his hand with concern. "Something's wrong."

"More than before?" Seth retorted.

Chris sighed. "I don't know. Let's just hurry." He turned and looked at Brianna. "Can you bring me to the manor?"

Brianna nodded. "Yeah, but then I have to go."

Chris looked at her surprised. "You didn't seem to be in a hurry earlier. You should have said something."

She shook her head. "Something came up."

"Would you rather Seth took me?"

Brianna glanced over at the two brothers and shook her head. "No, he has other things to worry about. Besides, I'm the one who knows the recipe. You'll need that to put these together, so let's get going. I'll be back if I can."

Chris looked at her suspiciously. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing you need worry about," she hedged. "It shouldn't take long, but we'd better get started. Besides, didn't you're mom say she had good news?"

"Good news?" Seth asked, looking interested.

Chris nodded. "About my powers, I hope.

"Then, you'd better get going," Seth decided.

"Seth, did you find out where Jody's dad is?"

Seth shook his head. "Sorry, Nick didn't mention it."

"See if you can find that out," Chris suggested. "We'll need that info it we are going to give him the cure once it's made."

Seth looked over at his little brother. "How about it? Should we return and talk to Nick?"

Peter nodded quickly. "Nick will be expecting that." With a mischievous grin he added, "He did ask us to help them after all."

Seth chuckled. "Good thing I brought you along," he teased. "I'd forget all these things if I didn't."

"We're all set then?" Chris asked looking between the other three. After receiving nods all around, he walked over to Brianna. "We're going to my mom. Try to make it look like I'm not about to fall over. She tends to worry."

* * *

Even though he realized before that he knew someone who was cursed, but it's only now that he's realizing that he can do something about it and that he should. Just because two of them have learned to live normal lives despite being cursed, doesn't mean they wouldn't like to have the curse removed. And their friend is still letting it control his life. What do you think will happen with that?

Wyatt hung up suddenly. If you want to find out why, it's in the next chapter.


	28. The Missing CoWorker

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Hehe. Always good to hear.

Only six people were in the building when Steve locked it down. The sixth one has finally come in contact with Wyatt and he needs to deal with her before she gets infected, too.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Eight – The Missing Co-Worker

"What are you hiding?" Kelly Conley demanded as she tried to look past Wyatt.

"How have you been, Kelly?" Wyatt asked, trying to distract her.

_Such a lovely neck she has._

"Miserable," she glared at him. "Hal started calling me around nine. He wanted to know why no one was answering any phones. The doors are locked and no one can get in. Know anything about that?"

"I'm not sure what's up with the phones or doors," he informed her truthfully, though he of course figured it had to do with the cursed gem in the basement, "but I did notice that. If Hal called you so long ago, why haven't any of us heard from you?"

"I've been busy trying to work," she informed him. Then, to his surprise she added, "I figured if the building was unexpectedly closed, I might as well get some things done that I couldn't with guests in the museum."

_Her neck's right there. So thin. Twist it. It's easy._

Wyatt shuddered.

"Wyatt, are you all right?" Kelly asked concerned. "You look cold and it's warm in here."

"He's fine," Andrew informed her, peeking his head of the room. "Go back to your statues, Kelly. Tell Hal, the doors will be opened, when they are opened."

"He has the police out there, trying to figure out how to open them, but they can't even touch them," Kelly told them with a look of disgust. "So much for the all mighty San Francisco PD."

Andrew waved his hand at her dismissively. "Get out of here, Kelly. I'm sure the people able to fix all this are on it, so don't worry."

"Really, Andrew," Kelly shook her head at him. "You sound like a child with something to hide. Is Nathan here? He's usually more reasonable."

_Such a lovely thin neck._

"Kelly, just go," Wyatt told her, his body shaking with his effort to not follow through on the thoughts of killing her. "Nathan's busy." He glanced at Andrew, letting the question in his mind show through on his face.

Andrew nodded quickly. "We may be locked in, Kelly, but we're still at work," he reminded her. "So let us get back to that."

Kelly shook her head. "You're up to something."

_One quick twist and it's done. She wouldn't even feel it._

"We're just busy," Wyatt attempted to assure her, trying to hide his revulsion.

"Whatever," she tossed back as she turned around and headed back toward the stairs.

Wyatt slumped against the wall and breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness!"

"She's not infected, is she?" Andrew asked looking at him.

Wyatt shook his head. "One less person to worry about. She should be fine just as long as she doesn't run into Olivia."

"And what about the police?"

Wyatt sighed. "That was bound to happen, I guess. It just makes it more difficult, but I don't think they can get in."

Andrew groaned. "This is hard, Wyatt. How much longer do we have to wait before we go completely crazy?"

"Don't think like that," Wyatt ordered him. "Just don't think like that. There's a cure out there. There has to be and my brother will find a way to get it to us before it's too late. Just hold on, Andrew."

"I tried to kill my best friend, Wyatt," Andrew reminded him. "That's not something that goes away."

"I wanted to wring her neck," Wyatt told him deadpan.

Andrew looked at him startled. "What?"

"The thought popped into my head and it wouldn't go away until she did," Wyatt informed him. "You have to control your thoughts, Andrew, no matter how hard. I don't know how you can do it, but you have to. You have to if you are to protect you and Nathan. Or else you have to let me tie you up again, and trust me."

Andrew gulped. "Right now, I'd rather not trust someone other than myself. It seems to dangerous."

Wyatt nodded and closed his eyes, trying to sense for Olivia. No one appeared to be in immediate danger so he sighed and looked over at Andrew. "I'm sorry you're involved in this. These things tend to happen to my family."

Andrew shrugged. "The way I hear it, I wouldn't even be here if not for your family, so don't worry about it."

Wyatt looked at him with a frown. "You mentioned before that you know magic and now this. Care to explain?"

"Maybe when there isn't a danger of us killing each other," Andrew informed him with a shrug as he headed back into the basement storage room.

* * *

Andrew came through for Wyatt with Kelly and helped get her to leave, but is Wyatt right for confiding in him? And how does Andrew know about magic?

In the next chapter, "Potions", Piper is ready to try out her new one. Now, all she has to do is get her younger son there to take it.


	29. Potions

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Basically, yes, but you won't find him mentioned by that name anywhere on Charmed. Only his last name is mentioned.

Piper's ready to try her new potion on her son. She hopes that it will work and get him back his powers. Chris and Brianna surprise her with the ingredients they gathered for the potion Wyatt and his co-workers need. Chris shares a little bit about the other time line.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Nine – Potions

"Done," Piper announced as she held up a potion bottle. The liquid inside was a pale yellow. "Now all we have to do is get my son here."

"Done," Paige commented ironically as she watched Brianna blink in with her arms around Chris.

Chris wobbled in Brianna's arms. His face turned green and he ran toward the door of the attic. He almost made it to the door before he started spewing liquid and chunks of food.

Piper watched her son stunned for a moment and then turned to look at Brianna. "What did you do to my son?"

"Nothing," Brianna exclaimed quickly. This was not the way she wanted to me a Charmed One, again. It was probably enough to have her out for Brianna's blood. "He just reacts badly to blinking."

Three sets of eyes looked at her with mixtures of disbelief and confusion.

Chris slipped down the stairs to clean up.

"He reacts badly to blinking?" Prue asked, skepticism lacing her voice. "I can understand that, if it was orbing and he wasn't half whitelighter or maybe if it was shimmering, but blinking? That's the most gentle form of magical travel I've experienced."

Brianna smiled a little at that. "Yeah, it's a mystery all right. I have a friend who reacts in a similar fashion." She chuckled. "It's rather amusing to see him humbled like that, but since it causes him physical pain and not just disorientation, I've decided it's not worth it unless absolutely necessary."

"Yeah, well it's absolutely _not_ necessary to do that to my son," Piper insisted, placing the potion vial back on the table, none too gently.

"Actually," Brianna commented as she held up the bag with the ingredients they had collected, "it is, if you wanted to get these faster."

Piper looked at the bag, questioningly. "What's in there?"

"The ingredients to a potion that will help your other son," she informed her as she walked over to them and placed the bag on the table next to potion Piper had been working on. "We need at least seven doses. That should be plenty for at least a dozen, probably two dozen or even more."

"Where on earth did you find a cure?" Piper asked, amazed. "I couldn't even find mention of one."

"I followed some demons around for hours this morning," she announced. "And then I search through some old books, really old books, so old I had to borrow diving equipment to breathe, because it's kind of buried."

"You went into a buried library?" Paige asked, a touch of concern in her voice. "Are you okay?"

Brianna nodded. "Oh, I'm fine. I go down there from time to time for research, though usually one of my friends joins me. It was something my friend Toby found years ago."

Chris reentered the attic with a wash rag and a basin, grimaced at the sight of the throw up and bent down to clean it.

"Leave it," Piper directed. "We have bigger issues right now."

Chris nodded as he put down the stuff in his hands. He stood up and moved around the throw up. "So you said, you have good news," he commented. "I hope it includes getting my powers back, because no offence to Brianna, but I don't think I can stand more blinking. That was a very unpleasant experience."

Brianna chuckled at that. "You and CT." She chuckled a little more.

Chris frowned and looked at her. "What about him?"

She shrugged. "He reacts in a similar manor, that's all. We try to make sure that someone other than me is around to transport him somewhere if needed."

"That's the friend you mentioned earlier?" Piper asked.

Brianna nodded once more. "We've got some ingredients for a potion you need to make for your older son. What have you found?"

Piper allowed for the change in subject. "Chris, your friend, Emily. . ."

"She's not my friend," he protested. "I just work with her."

"She knows your secret, Chris," Piper reminded him. "That builds a bond, and I've seen that between the two of you to work."

Chris frowned. "She's not magical, Mom. Being my friend is dangerous. Do you have any idea how many people have died because they were my friend?"

Silence met that statement.

Chris didn't even notice. "Miles was beaten so badly he was in a coma for three weeks before he died. We found Brian's bloody broken body in out headquarters. Gen found him. I'm not sure which was worse for her. Watching her brother killed or finding her boyfriend's body. And then Gen. She had a blast of electricity shot through her head." Chris appeared to be seeing things no one else could see. "And I can never tell Wyatt about Amber. I can't hurt him like that. He stopped and looked at Piper. "Don't you understand, Mom? It's too dangerous for her to be my friend."

Brianna watched him curiously. She could understand where he was coming from, but she had very different reasons for avoiding friendships with the nonmagical. She couldn't accept anyone who couldn't accept her closest friends and accepting her friends was hard enough for the magical community. Oh, she had friendships with some people who weren't magical, but none of them were close. . . not like those four idiots she called her best friends.

Piper sighed. "Back to my point. Emily came over here with a package someone had delivered to her. It was address to me. Inside there were various items that allowed me to make a potion that should fix your powers."

Chris frowned. "Are you sure?"

"I studied the potion enough to be certain of its origins," Piper informed him. "You were given a modified stripping potion mixed with more of that gel that gave you and Wyatt so much trouble earlier this year."

Chris frowned as he tried to figure out what she meant. His widened as realization hit him. "The gel that kept us from being able to orb?"

Piper nodded. "And I have a cure for that, too. I've mixed the two, together, but you'll need to take them as soon as possible, so drink up." She picked up the potion vial she had put down when he had arrived and handed it to him.

Chris took it and looked at the yellow liquid with distaste on his face. "Are you sure?"

"Drink it," Piper instructed him.

Chris sighed and unstopped it. The odor did little to encourage him. Much to the amusement of the others in the room, he pinched his nose, put it up to his lips and swallowed it down in two gulps. He heaved in a deep breath and handed the vial back to his mom. "How long until it works?"

"It needs to get into your bloodstream," she told him, "so why don't you two tell me what you mean about a potion to help Wyatt."

Chris inclined his head toward Brianna. "She's the one who knows how to make the potion. All the ingredients are in the bag she has with her." He frowned as he realized the bag was no longer with Brianna. "Or had. Where is it?"

"This one?" Piper asked, suddenly remembering the conversation they had started before Chris had reentered the attic.

Brianna nodded. "I wrote down the portions needed, but my hand writing . . ." she shrugged apologetically, "it's never been all that great."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Prue asked.

Brianna held her head up high as she looked Prue in the eye. "Trust me or not. You won't find me defending who I am or my actions. I don't particularly care what people think. The thing is, there are at least seven people in need of the potion right now, four of them quite desperately, including your nephew. You wait long and four of them might be dead." She glanced over at Chris, before returning her attention to Prue. "He doesn't know what I read. He only knows the testimonials of four friends, three of whom are infected, but dealing with it, and what little his brother might have told him, but it isn't something you wish on your nephew or anyone else."

"Prue, Piper should be able to tell if the potion is going to help or harm," Paige reminded her. "She's had a lot of practice with that."

Prue ignored her. "What are you?" she asked Brianna.

"Depends on who you ask," Brianna snorted. "Witch. Warlock. Who knows." She turned away and looked at Piper. "Am I going to help? Or do I leave now?"

"You stay," Chris surprised everyone by saying. "Aunt Prue, I trust her. Besides, she's Wyatt's only chance."

Brianna afforded him a smile. "Thanks."

He shrugged. "We need your help. I believe you are willing to give it." He looked at his mother and aunts. "Come on, we need to get to work. Wyatt sounded quite desperate when last I talked to him. I don't thing things are not going well for him."

Piper opened the bag and began pulling jars, boxes, and other small containers.

Paige walked over to the table, looking at the contents with a wrinkled nose. "This is supposed to help?"

Brianna nodded. "There is one ingredient not in there."

"What?" Chris exclaimed. "You said we had everything."

She gave him a look. "We do. I said it wasn't in there. I didn't say we didn't have any. I should imagine you have a huge supply in this house."

"A huge supply?" Chris asked skeptically.

She grinned. "A gallon or two ought to work, depends on the number of batches you wish to make."

"A gallon or two?" Chris repeated, surprised.

Paige chuckled, having figured out what missing ingredient Brianna was teasing Chris about.

Prue watched with a slightly amused look on her face.

Piper was not so amused. "Just go get the water, Chris," she ordered.

"Water?" Chris blinked and then laughed. "Right." He headed toward the door.

"Try orbing," Piper directed.

Chris looked at his mom, a half smile on his face. "Worth a try." He focused on the kitchen downstairs and orbed out.

No one was paying attention to Brianna in that moment or they would have seen the grin on her face. _Yes! Take that, Uncle Steve!_

Piper sighed in relief. "One problem fixed; one much bigger one to deal with. Let's get to work ladies."

TO BE CONTINUED

* * *

Chris has his powers back, something most people don't get when their powers are stripped. And as a added bonus Piper invented a potion to deal with the anti-orb gel that got both of her sons in "A Mother Knows". If that ever happens, again, they can fix it easily.

Brianna's got a lot on her mind. She's realized what's going on and she wants to deal with it in her own way.

That's it for part one. To find out what happens next read episode #16, "My Curse on You ~ Part 2".


End file.
